Palmetto Ridge Blanks Lely Boys, but Future Looks Bright

The Lely boys soccer team has set the bar high for themselves, advancing to the state finals the past two years in a row. That’s why Thursday’s 3-0 home loss to Palmetto Ridge came as a surprise for the program.

“This game didn’t go the way we expected,” said Lely head coach Robbie Schank, “we came in here hurt, we had a couple of guys out sick, a couple of guys injured. It was a tough week for us. It’s not the result we look for. We beat them earlier this season and expected the same result tonight, it just didn’t happen.”

Palmetto Ridge (6-6-2) scored once in the first half and twice in the second to take the win. Despite having a consistent presence in the Bears’ goal area, Lely (8-4-2) was unable to score.

Schank, looking at the big picture, is pleased with his young team.

“It’s going as planned,” Schank said. "This is probably the youngest varsity team I’ve coached in 28 years. It’s a lot of freshmen and sophomores. I think we have four seniors in the whole program.”

Schank has grown accustomed to coaching powerhouse teams. This year’s team is just going to take a while to mature.

"It’s a big adjustment from the past two years,” Schank said, "going to the state finals. We’ve been very blessed the past five years. We’ve just got to be patient. We have some guys coming back before the playoffs. Hopefully all the pieces fall together to make another deep playoff run.”

Schank is looking forward to what’s to come in the next three years.

I’ll basically have this team for the next two to three years,” he said.  "It’s just a matter of time."