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Eagles advance, top Chiles 3-0 (SLIDESHOW)
NICEVILLE – Niceville’s Eli Craft may be small in stature, but she came up huge on the stat sheet in the Eagles’ 3-0 victory over Tallahassee Chiles in the Region 1-4A quarterfinals Tuesday night at Twin Oaks Park.
Craft notched two goals for the Eagles, both of which came in the first half.
After a slow first 20 minutes of play, the Eagles (17-3-2) changed their attack and finally settled in. In the 31st minute, Craft fielded a cross from Elana Pete in the box and knocked it just inside the left post to give Niceville the 1-0 advantage.
“When we settle down and start playing our game it just makes things real easy for us,” Craft said. “After our first water break midfield started playing their game and we started putting balls away.”
Seven minutes later, Craft battled for possession amongst a host of Chiles (8-10-3) defenders and ended up sneaking in an unassisted goal to move the Eagles’ lead to 2-0.
“I have no idea who put it in,” Craft said of her second goal, “but the ball went straight up and I went for it.
“Giving up won’t do anything, so I kind of stuck with it.”
Samantha Ditmar added a goal in the 69th minute off a corner kick from Kaitlyn Brown to close out the scoring for the Eagles.
Despite some recent injuries, the Eagles' defense recorded their fourth-straight shutout this postseason against a Chiles team that had struggled as of late. Chiles has now failed to manage a goal in 10 of its last 11 matches.
“We used to play with four in the back and now we have to play with three and we really have had to step it up and its worked out,” Niceville defender Katie Wills said.
Niceville hosts Pace Friday in the Region 1-4A semifinal. The two met in the district final last week, a meeting Niceville won 1-0 in overtime.
Follow Pat Flynn on Twitter: @PatFnwfdn
