Rays Play Two, Tie Two

Marco Island Academy and Southwest Florida Christian Academy played to a 2-2 tie Thursday night, January 4, at Manta Ray Field. It was the second game in as many nights for the Rays, who tied Community School 2-2 on the road Wednesday.

The Rays (2-5-2) and Southwest Florida Christian (2-7-4) were tied 1–1 when Chase Polley nailed a 20-yard goal with 30:02 left in the second half. The Kings answered four minutes later to complete the scoring. Polley scored both of MIA’s goals.

“Chase, he’s a phenomenal player,” said Fernando Higuera, Ray's head coach. "He's our top scorer and he's the striker.”

Last season, Polley played defense for Higuera.

 "Now he plays front end,” Higuera said. "He's changed his speed, his ball control. I mean, he's a really good player. So I'm glad we have him on this side. And today, he just showed it. Last year, he started on defense and then I moved him up because I needed offense. You know defense is what wins you championships, but I had a really solid defense today. So I moved him up. And he's really good as a striker. He has the most goals that we ever had. So he's really good.”

Higuera was pleased with his team’s performance, especially given the short turnaround from the Community School game.

“It was a hard game because we just played yesterday,” he said. "We had a really tough game yesterday in Community School. Back-to-back games are really hard on the body. They did amazing. Today, we tried our best and we tied both games. So I'm proud of them for the way they played."

Higuera singled out two other players for praise.

“Ivan Harrison is one of our captains,” Higuera said. "He's been playing with us since his freshman year, and he's really good. Ryan Sweeney, he's our goalie, and he's improved the most from last year to this year. He's a whole different player. I don't know if he practiced a lot during the summer or something, but I mean, he is phenomenal. I know they scored two goals, but they were really good goals. There's nothing he could have done. Those are the three seniors that we have."

MIA hosted Village School Monday, after the Coastal Breeze News deadline, and concluded their regular season Tuesday at home against First Baptist Academy. Next up is the conference tournament. Higuera likes his team’s chances.

"It all depends,” he said, "if we're rested and we conquer our opportunities, we've got our chances. We just need to score some. The other day we had seven chances. We didn't score, and we lost the game. So we have to score. That’s the key. If we score and we have a good game, then definitely yes, we have a chance.”

District play follows the conference tournament.

“It all depends who we're going to play against in districts,” Higuera said. “It all depends how we match up against the first opponent."