A year ago, Lincoln girl's soccer was rolling through the season with record goal-scorer Paige Churchill leading the line for the high-flying Trojans. A run to the state semifinals cemented the 2022-23 team's legendary status in program history, but the question then became, how do you follow that up?

With an encore of course.

Taking down Chiles (9-2-2) in a back-and-forth 3-2 contest on Monday night, the Trojans sit at 9-4-1 and are the only team to beat the Timberwolves all year, winning the first matchup in December 2-1. Despite ups and downs this season and the bar set high by last year's team, Lincoln's squad isn't shying away from the expectations, rather, the team is embracing it.

"It's been difficult. We battled with some injuries and it's been a tough last couple of weeks for us, but we got the win tonight," Lincoln head coach Jono Williams said. "We kind of set the tone last year and these girls believe they can make it to a state championship and win a state championship. Chiles has a good team and this was a tough test for us and we came out on top."

Monday night's victory snapped a four-game slide that included three losses and a draw against Navarre, giving the Trojans a confidence boost with district play right around the corner. Winning a district title for the first time in over a decade last season, Lincoln is primed for a run at making it back-to-back, and the win over Chiles has confidence high.

Williams said his team is starting to hit form at the right time, and with the postseason rapidly approaching, he wants to focus on what the team can control.

"During the regular season, we're fine-tuning everything trying to become the best team," Willaims said. "We're playing the best soccer at the right time of the year. It doesn't really matter the opponent, we want to play our game and figure out what we do well and what we need to improve on."

Answer the goal call

An area the Trojans don't need much improvement in is goal scoring.

One of the question marks coming into the season for Lincoln was how to replace the historic output of superstar forward Churchill, who scored 44 of the team's 74 goals last year, adding nine assists in the process. This year, the Trojans have a more balanced attack but still are scoring at a high-level with 49 goals so far.

"I think we answered that question very early on, and there are still games where we struggled to find the back of the net," Williams said. "Last couple of games we struggled, but I have confidence that in an 80-minute game, we're going to score two or three goals. So if we can be organized defensively then we should come out on top."

Chiles has conceded 11 goals this season, with five of those goals coming from the Trojans. Senior defender Lita Frost, who scored a free kick on Monday night, said being able to score consistently against teams like the Timberwolves gives the squad tons of confidence ahead of the playoffs.

"The main thing is just scoring goals because that is something we maybe struggled with in the past, but now we have that experience scoring goals against good teams," Frost said. "That will definitely carry on to the postseason and we want to be doing the same against those teams."

Frost is one of 10 seniors on this season's Lincoln squad and the veteran presence of her and seniors like Estella Diaz and Rosemary Lopez help the Trojans keep a level head during pressure-filled games. With a large portion of the team playing its last season, Frost hopes the seniors leave a mark on the younger players of the squad.

"It's very important for us because there won't be as many returning players on varsity to let the new players on varsity know to keep the standard high like we did and kind of follow in our footsteps," Frost said.

With the focus on the playoffs coming into view for Lincoln, both Williams and Frost hope that performances like the one against Chiles will give the team a boost in postseason play.

"I think these wins will be really good, especially towards the end of the season going into the postseason because we'll have more confidence," Frost said. "We will have more experience playing against really good teams and experience winning games and we will know that feeling and just want it way more in the postseason."

Liam Rooney covers preps sports for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Lincoln girls soccer beat Chiles in thrilling matchup ahead of playoffs