ORANGE PARK - St. Johns Country Day School girls soccer dominated yet another region playoff opponent with senior Victoria Sarka bashing in another three-goal hat trick to lead the Lady Spartans to a 5-0 win over Rocky Bayou Christian Monday night at St. Johns Country Day School.

Rocky Bayou did establish a surprising 1-0 halftime score off a Sarka header for the lone goal before St. Johns coach Mike Pickett gave some stark advice at halftime.

"Tactics don't really matter when the other team is beating you to nearly every ball," Pickett said. "Rocky Bayou came out very aggressive and kind of flying around. First half, they seemed like they wanted it really bad. At halftime, I told them the season is over if we don't win. We had to match their intensity and then play some soccer."

Sarka, who scored her first playoff hat trick last week in the Spartans 8-0 region quarterfinal win over St. Johns Paul II and has been the recipient of corner kicks from sophomore Alana Mantello for head shot goals, got the first two goals for St. Johns with senior midfielder Calli Berrang smashing home a line drive shot late in the second half to knock Rocky Bayou out of the region playoffs.

"Alana is about 24 assists for the year with 20 coming off corner kicks," Pickett said. "Victoria is very good at putting the ball in the net off the corners, but she was off on two or three in the first half. We moved some people around for a different look and getting better match ups."

Sarka's second half goal came off a tap-in in front of the Rocky Bayou goal for a 2-0 lead as the second half started.

Late in the second half, a corner kick got both Sarka and Berrang's heads before Berrang put the ball in the net. Officials deemed Berrang interfered with the goalie on the second head ball attempt and negated the goal. Berrang answered on the next offensive surge by St. Johns with a cut and dash push from midfield before rifling a scoring shot over Rocky Bayou defender Phoebe Riches to put the game at 3-0 with 28:27 left on the clock.

After hitting her third goal of the night just before the second half water break, Sarka looked to be on her way to a fourth goal with a swift sprint down the far sideline where she outran three Rocky Bayou defenders and started her bend toward the goal before finding Berrang in front of the goal for the fifth goal.
St. Johns will play Friday, Feb. 13 in the region final against Mount Dora Christian with a record of 13-3-2, but a strength of schedule of -3.0. St. Johns Country Day School is 14-3-3 but with a strength of schedule of 16.6. St. Johns' last lost and give up a goal in the region to state playoffs was in 2024 with a 1-0 loss to Shorecrest Prep in the Class 2A state semifinal.

In the three remaining region finals: All Saints Academy will host Victory Christian Academy, Canterbury will host Out of Door Academy and Berean Christian will host South Florida HEAT.

St. Johns Country Day School is ranked number one in Class 1A with Out of Door second (15-2-1, SOS 4.3), Canterbury third (16-5-0, SOS 9.5), All Saints Academy fifth (9-5-1, SOS 7.1), Berean Christian seventh (14-4-0, SOS 0.6), South Florida HEAT 12th (12-2-3, SOS -4.2) and Mount Dora Christian 13th (12-3-2, SOS -3.0).

St. Johns Country Day School, South Florida HEAT and Canterbury all are returners to their respective region finals. St. Johns beat South Florida HEAT, 6-0, in the state semifinal before beating The Pine School, 4-0, for the Class 1A title.