Lake Mary Clinches 4th Girls Soccer State Title in Family Legacy Triumph

Eissele dynasty continues as Lake Mary shuts out Cypress Bay, 2-0, in FHSAA Class 7A State Championship

Bill Kemp | Feb 21, 2025

Cypress Bay junior McKenzie Rector goes to the ground with the Lake Mary goalkeeper after she unleashed a hard shot during the closing minutes of the FHSAA Class 7A girls soccer state championship game at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex on Friday. / Bill Kemp

AUBURNDALE, Fla. – For Lake Mary, it’s all in the family.

Lake Mary won its fourth girls soccer state championship in program history Friday, shutting out Weston Cypress Bay, 2-0, Friday in the FHSAA Class 7A state title game.

“We’ve said it all year, defense wins championships. Our defending was incredible,” Lake Mary coach Christian Eissele said.

Lake Mary won three state titles under Christian’s father, Bill Eissele, in 1989, 1998 and 2002. Bill resigned following the 2019-20 season as the third winningest girls coach in U.S. history, producing a 660-215-72 record.

Lake Mary pumped in two first-half goals and then utilized its stingy defense to hold Cypress Bay (18-2-1) scoreless.

Senior Lindsay Sheets scored the first goal off a corner kick for Lake Mary and then junior Ava McKay added the second with just seconds remaining in the first half.

Cypress Bay was looking for its first girls soccer state championship in program history.

The Lightning have reached the state championship game seven times but have settled for the state runners-up trophy on all occasions.

“We definitely had a harder route (to reach the state finals) this time,” said Cypress Bay head coach Kate Dwyer, now in her 19th season with the program. “We had the top three in our region from the top 10 teams in the state.

Lake Mary celebrates after winning the 2025 FHSAA Class 7A girls soccer state championship. / Bill Kemp

Published Feb 21, 2025

BILL KEMP

Bill Kemp is an award-winning sports journalist at the state and national levels. Over the course of 25 years, he’s covered more than 4,000 sporting events including the NFL regular season, playoffs and Super Bowls, Major League Baseball regular season and spring training, NASCAR racing at Daytona and Talladega International Speedways and major college football regular seasons and bowl games. He was named by the Associated Press Sports Editors as a Top 10 sports columnist and Top 3 by the Alabama Press Association for best sports column and sports page design. He has served as preps editor at the Lakeland Ledger as well as sports editor at five different newspapers in Florida and Alabama. He has been published in dozens of newspapers including USA Today, the Miami Herald, the Orlando Sentinel, the Jacksonville Times Union and the Tampa Bay Times. He holds a bachelor's degree from the University of South Florida. He has been writing for SBLive Sports since 2022.