Former teammate roots on Mustangs

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Days before playing the biggest game in program history, the girls of Lakewood Ranch’s soccer team received words of wisdom from a piece of the past.

It came via e-mail, landing in Facebook inboxes and coach Guy Virgilio’s personal account.

It came from Lindsay Thompson, a superstar during her four years as a Mustang and now a starter at the University of Florida.

And it came with a message: Don’t take this for granted. Don’t panic.

Embrace it — you may never have this chance again.

Thompson never had the chance that is awaiting this year’s Mustangs, who face St. Johns Bartram Trail at 7:15 p.m. tonight in a Class 4A state semifinal at Pepin Stadium at the University of Tampa.

Then again, no Mustangs team has had this chance — this is the furthest they have ever gone, and Lakewood Ranch is the county’s second public school soccer team to reach the final four after Palmetto’s boys did it last year.

Prior to Saturday’s dramatic win over Naples Barron Collier in the Region 3 championship game, no Lakewood Ranch team had gone further than the 2006 squad, which lost in a regional final to Palm Harbor University.

Thompson was a sophomore that year.

“She was telling us that when they lost regional finals her sophomore year, she kind of said in the back of her mind, ‘Oh, we’re going to get there again,’” said Kaitlyn Kerrigan, Lakewood Ranch’s senior co-captain who has 11 goals and 11 assists. “And she said, ‘That was the wrong mindset to have, because we didn’t.’”

Consequently, Kerrigan and company aren’t just happy to be heading to Pepin Stadium tonight. As good as the season has been — aside from clinching district and regional titles, Lakewood Ranch is 19-0-2 — the Mustangs want to see it through.

“It’s time to make a new goal to continue on,” Kerrigan said. “Now, obviously our next goal is to move on and make it to the state final. Recreating goals and just adding on to our first goal is really going to power us through.”

Lakewood Ranch now has to perform a balancing act. On one hand, the Mustangs need to heed Thompson’s words and enjoy accomplishing something that has never been done before.

On the other, this is the last chance for seniors such as Kerrigan and co-captain Kristen Hagaman to win a state championship.

“I don’t have any problem right now getting that message across to the juniors and seniors,” Virgilio said. “That’s what has been working for us this whole year — a lot of this stuff has been my seniors. They are very mature. ... They are the ones who have been doing the talking to the underclassmen. They’ve been doing a great job of trying to make them understand, ‘Hey, who knows the next time you are going to be here? So let’s take advantage of it.’”

The younger players have seem to taken notice. Junior Sarah Miller leads Lakewood Ranch in goals (25) and assists (16), but freshmen Sarah Wolfe is second on the team in goals (16) and points (24).

It’s been a team effort — one the Mustangs want to see through for two more games.

“It’s just like ‘Forrest Gump’ — ‘I’ve gone this far, why not go a little bit longer?’” said Virgilio, quoting the 1994 movie starring Tom Hanks. “That’s what I told them — we’re here. Let’s go the little extra step.”