Mateo Soto chimed in with a speech to his teammates at halftime of the District 1-6A final Wednesday night against Tate, demanding one thing of them no matter what the scoreboard said at the end.
The Navarre standout and team captain asked his fellow Raiders to be dead tired by the end of the night, to fight for every ball and not make anything easy for the Aggies.
Taylor Armstead missed some games this season because of an injury. When she finally returned to the field, it was a slow process to get back into her groove as a scoring threat for the Navarre Raiders.
She admits, it wasn’t easy, and yet, those moments of frustration faded away on a chilly evening at the Ashton Brosnaham Complex in Pensacola as the junior standout scored a crucial goal in a tightly contested District 1-6A championship game against rival Pace.
Nayeli Brambila had cut Navarre’s deficit to six points early in the fourth quarter Monday night and gave Navarre’s girls basketball a ray of hope that a comeback win over Central was possible.
But back-to-back 3-pointers from the Jaguars dashed that hope as the Raiders suffered another tough loss in what has been a difficult season.
The 3A regional weightlifting meet takes place this week and area teams will be well-represented there.
According to the unofficial list of qualifiers, Navarre has 18 in the Olympic division, led by district champion Izzy Zach. Zach is also a district champ in traditional, where the Raiders have a total of 19 lifters competing.
Overtime awaited after 80 exhausting minutes of fiercely competitive soccer against the No. 2 team in the state, the Navarre Raiders tied 2-2 with the rival Gulf Breeze Dolphins in a thrilling District 1-6A semifinal.
The players were out of breath, sore and tired, many of them with their hands on their sides as they listened to their coach, James Baccarini, who was fired up in the huddle as he spoke.
Navarre’s girls soccer team has been waiting since last season for a chance to return to a District 1-6A championship game.
Eliminated in the semifinal round a year ago, the top-seeded Raiders didn’t let history repeat itself, rolling to a 4-0 win over Tate Friday.
Navarre’s boys basketball team kept it close against Crestview last Thursday night on the road.
The Raiders were within seven with just under five minutes to play in the game but couldn’t put together a rally, falling 75-61 to the Bulldogs.
After winning only five games total the last two years, Navarre’s boys soccer team is trending up.
The Raiders won their ninth game of the season Thursday night with a 2-0 shutout win over Milton at Bennett C Russell Stadium in a District 1-6A quarterfinal.
