The Lee club has now gone five years without a conference defeat and they will take their nation's No. 1 ranking into the Region XIII semi-final round next Friday afternoon at the Lee Soccer Field.
While the 18-1 Lee team records continue to grow, All-American Janaina Novaes showed the large crowd at Berry why she is one of the nation's best. On Friday, she was named the Player of the Year in the SSAC and on Saturday was named the MVP of the SSAC tourney.
Novaes scored three-straight goals in the second half in recording the hat-trick. On the year, she has now tallied 32 goals and has 114 goals during her brilliant four-year career at Lee.
Yelton used 21 players in Saturday's win and every competitor shared plenty of playing time. Lee's first goal came in the 16th minute and was scored by Marina Lima. Meg Willette got the assist. "Marina had turned into a complete soccer player this season," said Yelton. "She is one of the key reasons why this is a much better team than last year's squad."
The second tally was scored on the 12th goal of the year by Jenna Achten. Tiffany Cox worked overtime to set up the score and then delivered a perfect assist to Achten, who headed the ball into the net.
In the second half, the Novaes show began. Her first tally came in the 68th minute on the second assist of the game by Willette. Just over a minute later, Novaes scored again. Mabel Velarde was credited with the assist. The final tally came in the 80th minute and sailed past the keeper for the unassisted score.
"I realize it was tough for Berry to come back after the shoot-out with Auburn Montgomery on Friday," said coach Yelton. "Our girls came ready to play today and it was a total team performance. Kristina Chase showed us why she is one of the best midfielders around and Samantha Hare and Mabel (Velarde) helped give us outstanding play at midfield."
The Lady Flames have allowed only 10 goals the entire year and have now registered a remarkable 13 shutouts in 19 games. They allowed Berry only two shots the entire game on Saturday and one save was recorded by keeper Kristi Koudelka. For Berry, Vanessa Zimmerman had a busy afternoon as the Lady Flames attempted 24 shots (10 on target). She had five saves.