Junior Abe Murphy shot back post to score the winning goal Tuesday night against The Villages Charter making West Shore the host for the state semifinal Friday against Jacksonville Bishop Kenny. Freshman goalkeeper Cooper Stein saved a penalty to preserve the Wildcats clean sheet. The Wildcats will be playing for a bid into the state championship for the first time since they won it all in 2012.

“I’m ecstatic,” junior Dylan O’Brien said. “We’ve had a lot of great performances recently and although this wasn’t our best game, we still did well and it’s huge for the team to have our work from the last few months start to pay off with big wins like this.”

O’Brien added that after Tuesday’s game the the team is feeling pretty confident about the game on Friday and that with hard work they’ll make it to the state final.

“Although we won, there is work that needs to be done,” sophomore Chase Hester said. “We need our fitness to be higher, especially if we go into overtime. We also need to move the ball quicker and have less dribbling through the middle of the field.”

The ‘Cats play Bishop Kenny Friday night at 7 at West Shore. Tickets are $9.

By Fallon Klenotich