The Wiregrass girl’s soccer team defeated Zephyrhills in their season opener on Monday night, winning 8-0. The game ended early due to the mercy rule, with about 25 minutes left in the second half. Last year’s match-up against Zephyrhills was also a mercy rule in favor of Wiregrass.  

Head coach Edwin Costa was excited to see how his team would perform.

“We have a new team this year; we graduated 7 seniors and got a few new transfers, and some JV players came up this year,” Costa explained. “Training for the last few weeks has helped us prepare for this game.”

Senior Marin Yeagle transferred this year from Estero High School, and is thankful for the Wiregrass team’s hospitality.

“We’ve definitely created a family environment, which was helpful after moving here, because moving during my senior year was really hard,” Yeagle said.

Zephyrhills kicked off to start the first half, hoping to put some pressure on the Bulls, but it was Wiregrass who scored the first goal within the first 5 minutes. Junior striker Avery Damjanovic scored this goal and another shortly after, making the score 2-0.

Zephyrhills failed to put any sort of offense into play, as any offense they tried to implement was quickly stopped by the Bulls’ defense. Outside left defender Yeagle scored with 22 minutes left in the first half, bringing the score to 3-0. With 9 minutes left, Damjanovic completed her hat trick, and ended the first half 4-0.

Bulls started the second half strong with senior midfielder Tiara Perez scoring the 5th goal of the night for the Bulls, with 36 minutes left in the second half. The Bulls capitalized after a yellow card on Zephyrhills, with a goal by sophomore midfielder Guadalupe Guerra, bringing the score to 6-0. Zephyrhills was carded yet again, leading to another goal for Wiregrass, with Merrick Rees scoring with 30 minutes left. Guerra scored her second goal with 26 minutes left, ending the game due to the mercy rule.

Senior midfielder Jessica Amis was proud of her team after the win.

“[Winning] feels good because it sets the tone for the whole rest of the season, and each game we try to work on things for the next one to get better,” Amis commented.

The Bulls will play their next game at home on Wednesday night against Academy at the Lakes.