It took nearly 50 minutes to get on the scoreboard, but once the scoring ice was broken the Ida Baker girls' soccer team soared past city rival Cape Coral 3-1 Wednesday night at Baker.
The first half went scoreless as Cape packed as many as eight players back to defend the goal in front of keeper Amanda Kopale. Still, the Bulldogs fired off 17 shots to none for the Seahawks in the first half.
Once Baker freshman Shannon Pearl blasted the ball past Kopale for the first goal early in the second half, the floodgates opened. Senior Christine Giles came through with two goals after that to seal the win.
Carrie McDonald scored Cape's lone goal to cut the margin to 2-1 at the time. Kopale finished with 17 saves while her Baker counterpart, Natalia Ortiz, only had to make two saves.
The Bulldogs (19-0, 9-0 district) finish off their District 4A-11 schedule at home against Lemon Bay Friday. The Seahawks (8-4-4, 4-3-3) host Mariner Friday.
"I'm glad they opened up in the second half," said Bulldogs coach Dave Trepkowski. "Once we got up two goals (Cape) turned offensive, but we were more focused."
Coming back from a two-week holiday break might have been reason enough for the unbeaten Bulldogs to suffer their first setback of the season. Add to that playing two games on back-to-back nights in 30-degree wind chill temperatures and a letdown almost might have been expected.
Anyone anticipating such an outcome was absolutely wrong as the Bulldogs shattered the Fort Myers Green Wave 7-2 in a key District 4A-11 game Tuesday night.
When the Green Wave got the first goal of the game on an own-goal play almost seven minutes in, it seemed anything bad that could happen, just might happen.
Not this night. Not once this talented and determined group of girls from Baker got warmed up.
The Green Wave had a 4-1 advantage in shots on goal early, but the Bulldogs took charge from there and outshot their guests 10-0 and scored three times to take a 3-1 halftime lead.
Pearl and Jordan Goffar each scored two goals, Emily Gibson had one goal and Giles and Brittney Herrera each added one goal and two assists.
Baker hosts Mariner Monday night and Island Coast at 6 p.m. Thursday before its LCAC crossover game next Friday.
