Final Four: Mosley girls fall in overtime heartbreaker

TAMPA — Mosley’s first trip to the FHSAA state semifinals was everything it wasn’t supposed to be.

Mosley and Seminole advanced by being fast-paced, high-scoring teams that overwhelmed their opponents with aggressive play.

Friday’s 1-0 overtime win by Seminole at the University of Tampa’s Pepin Stadium was nothing like that.

Mosley played most of the game on the defensive, making sure none of the Warhawks’ three leading scorers were able to slip free for an easy goal. When the rain came, the Lady Dolphins found their kryptonite and saw flashbacks to last year’s regional defeat.

Mosley’s hopes of a state championship were dashed this time by a player far off its radar.

Seminole senior Rachel Jones’ first goal of the season was the game-winning score four minutes into overtime off a cross by Megan Lawrence.

It enabled Seminole to advance to Saturday’s Class 5A championship game against Melbourne, which edged George Jenkins 2-1 in a showdown of heralded programs.

What happened after Lawrence took the corner kick in the 84th minute was anybody’s guess. Jones didn’t remember, and afterward when her teammates tried to describe the play no one could piece it together for sure.

“One slip and one mistake was going to end this game for one team or the other,” Mosley coach Jon Rhodes said. “That’s soccer. It happens.”

The Lady Dolphins had fought off the ghosts of last year’s disappointing loss to Tallahassee Chiles on penalty kicks to ride a 15-game winning streak to the school’s first state Final Four in any girls sport.

Mosley (19-4-0) spent the first half shaking off nerves in its 18-yard box. Seminole (20-2-2) controlled tempo and possession for most of the first 40 minutes with forwards Lawrence and Sierra Lelii testing Mosley keeper Emily Grammer on an array of headers and long kicks.

“That wasn’t by plan,” Rhodes said. “When it comes to championship games, nerves come into play. In the second half, we knew we’d find our feet.

“They were pressing really hard against us. We were sitting a little too deep.”

Mosley accomplished one facet of its game plan in not letting Lawrence or Lelii score. During their team meeting Friday morning, Rhodes told his team if it stopped those two the Warhawks would stall.

“We knew they were going to be a threat and personally, I thought we closed them out of the game,” Rhodes said. “I thought we kept them to” a minimum.

Grammer was forced to gamble at times, once in the first half coming off the line to stop Lelii with a sliding save.

Her day was made easier by defenders Anna Hall, Jennifer Hickman, Amber Gray and Leah Vickers, who had a busy time pushing Seminole’s offense as far up the field as possible.

“We were just trying to get our bearings and feel it out a little bit,” Vickers said.

Mosley found its rhythm in the second half, but much of the action was restricted to midfield as the Lady Dolphins struggled to make any deep runs. Junior Chelsey Williams was their most formidable attacker, but all of Mosley’s forwards faced a wall of defenders on almost every surge.

“Everything I did they just stopped,” Emily Vogler said. “They just were good.”

The only consolation Rhodes had during his final game as Mosley’s coach was when Seminole coach Steve Kuplicki praised the Lady Dolphins.

“I thought Mosley really did a good job defensively on us,” Kuplicki said.