- November 7, 2025
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Some losses linger well after the final whistle. They can carry a certain sting, synonymous with an abrupt end to a season.
The Braden River High girls soccer team players know that feeling.
Over eight months have passed since their hopes of 2024-25 championships came crashing down, but still, regrets cross their minds every now and then.
“We should have won,” said junior striker/midfielder Victoria Caiazzo. “I know we didn’t deserve to lose. It was a rough one.”
Caiazzo was talking about Braden River's final game last season, when the Pirates were undefeated going into the FHSAA Class 5A Regional finals this past February. The Pirates had made their deepest playoff run since at 2011-12, but a double overtime loss to North Fort Myers ended their season.
A state semifinals berth became a forever what-if.
The time has come for new beginnings. The Pirates began the 2025-26 regular season Oct. 27 with two weeks of practice in the books, as well as an understanding of what they’re all about.
Expectations won’t change with a changed roster.
“We’re keeping our standards the exact same. I don’t think we want to let up,” said senior midfielder Maddie Baehr. “We actually have more of a fire under our butts.”
Part of the process in building their identity has meant answering the question marks in net. Both of Braden River’s goalkeepers from a season ago — Lorelai Lis and Smith Kaele — have since graduated, stripping the squad of any continuity at the position.
Competition for the starting role came down to sophomore Sofiya Garasic and junior Chloe Russell. Garasic played between the posts for Lakewood Ranch Prep as a freshman, but hadn’t worked on the position much entering Braden River’s tryouts.
This will be Russell’s first season in the sport. She was the starting catcher for the softball team this past spring, but as a close friend of multiple girls on the soccer team, volunteered to help out in goal. She’s worked closely with the Pirates’ coaching staff since the summer to learn the position and prepare accordingly.
“They’re both working very hard, but they both have some big shoes to fill,” said coach Don Engelberger. “The two girls we had last year, in my opinion, were the best two goalies in the county. I had them both.”
Lis and Kaele surrendered 13 goals combined across 20 matches a year ago. That helped Braden River blow by opponents while scoring 91 goals on the season.
There’s turnover on offense, too. Former seniors Maddie Epperson and Abbey Jackson — responsible for 56 of the Pirates’ 251 overall points — are both out of the picture.
Countering those departures is returning talent, and lots of it.
Caiazzo is off and running in her second season with the program, having transferred from Lakeland, New York ahead of 2024-25. Her impact was tangible in more ways than one with team-highs of 48 points and 19 goals as a newcomer.
For the entire way, though, Baehr was right alongside her. The then-junior midfielder racked up 47 points in her own right as the Pirates’ primary facilitator, ending up with 23 assists in all.
She has a legacy to polish off before joining McNeese State of NCAA Division I in the fall.
“I definitely want to just leave my mark. Seeing those results last season was awesome,” Baehr said. “I’m hoping we raise those numbers even higher this year, and I hope that we get the results we want.”
Sophomore midfielder Jordynn Roberts rounds out the core of crucial contributors. A season ago, she flashed plenty of promise with a second-best 16 goals en route to 39 points. Her maturity around the program has been “night and day” relative to 2024-25, per Engelberger.
That means all of Braden River’s top-three scorers are back in the fold. And they just so happen to be the three reigning points leaders, as well.
But to Engelberger, there’s much more to each of them than big numbers.
“Those three… they have so much humility. Of course, they want to score. They want to out-do each other, but they also root for each other,” Engelberger said. “It’s just nice to see. I’ve had teams where that wasn’t the case.”
He still loves what he does entering Year 17. At an afternoon practice on Oct. 23, he joked about walking back his plan to trade one of his players to Parrish Community after her strong play. Then he warned about putting her back on the trading block after a missed shot.
At the same time, he takes all the little details seriously. Two players didn’t have shinguards at practice, so as a consequence, everyone was required to do 10 burpees before a water break.
Engelberger is realistic about the fact that uncertainty in net will increase the burden on his offense — at least, early on.
“We’ve got to score a lot of goals, because we’re going to get scored on,” Engelberger said. “(Baehr, Caiazzo and Roberts) have got to pick it up and take quality shots and make them count.”
The Pirates haven’t forgotten the pains of the past. They can’t help but wonder sometimes about what could’ve been.
What already happened can’t be changed, but the season ahead is a blank slate. They’ll approach it with that telling litmus test in mind.
“That loss is only motivation for us, honestly,” Caiazzo said. “That shows us how far we really can go.”
