Plant City entered Tuesday night’s game vs East Bay with a record of 4-4-1. They started the season off slowly, starting 0-3, but they quickly turned the season around, winning 3 of their last 4 games. They entered the game with 4 players unable to play vs East Bay.
The Plant City Raiders travel time to get to East Bay might have lasted longer than the game as they Mercy Ruled the Indians, winning 11-1 with 2:00 minutes remaining in the first half.
Things started a little slowly in the first couple of minutes as both teams were trying to figure each other out, but the Raiders found it out while the Indians never did. The first goal of the game was by Senior Hailey Witt with 33 minutes and 45 seconds remaining in the half. It only took four minutes from there as Magalii Trejo-Ponce scored and extended the Raiders lead. The Indians could not get any offense going, struggling to even get it past midfield 10+ minutes into the game. The Raiders eventually started playing keep away from the Indians at this point and after a couple of missed shots, Delilah Martinez-Otero scored for the Raiders, making it 3-0 with 24 minutes and 35 seconds left in the first half.
The first and only score from East Bay came with 23 minutes and 40 seconds left as the ball bounced off a Raiders defender, positioning itself perfectly for number 7 on the Indians to score. It took the Raiders just 2 minutes to not only score but to score twice after being scored on. The goals came from Sienna Kremper and Magalii Trejo-Ponce. At this point in the game, it looked and felt like the Indians stayed in the locker room as the Raiders just dominated over the final 10 minutes of this game before the mercy. Delilah Martinez-Otero scored her second goal of the game with 12 minutes and 53 seconds left in the game. Then Hailey Witt scored back-to-back goals, recording a hat trick with 5 minutes and 45 seconds at this point in the game. Just minutes after that, Delilah Martinez-Otero recorded her hat trick and then scored her fourth goal in less than a minute in game time shortly after her hat trick. The final goal of the game came from Hailey Witt, tying her teammate Delilah with 4 goals.
Tuesday’s win moves the Raiders to 5-4-1. The 11 goals is also a season high for the Raiders with their previous highest being 8 vs Spoto. Their next game is a home game where they put their positive record on the line vs the Lennard Longhorns who are 5-1-1.