Soccer
For much of Thursday night’s Class 2A, Region II girls soccer quarterfinal, it seemed as if Central had the upper hand against Gainesville-P.K. Yonge. It just didn’t show up on the scoreboard. Despite creating more chances, the Lady Bears couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the back of the net.
Lee Ducharme has had no such troubles for the Blue Wave, and hasn’t all season. She broke a scoreless tie in the 54th minute, then sealed matters with a goal just before the final whistle, upping her season total to 73 while sending the host Lady Bears to a 2-0 defeat. “When we were at halftime, we knew we had control of the game,” Central head coach Kenneth Brening said. “They packed the box. We counted each time (leading scorer) Emily (York) came in dribbling, nine players including the keeper in the box. We decided to move our shots outside the box which we generally don’t do that, we’ve never done that. We just couldn’t capitalize.
“I feel like the first goal was just a miscommunication. (Ducharme) gets the ball and she’s going to beat you. And she did. The warnings we put out, it happened. But before we went to halftime it should have been 1- or 2-0. I felt like if we could score we could take the wind out of their sails and probably dominate the game, and we couldn’t. When you leave it 0-0, you give them hope, this is what happens.”
For a Central (15-3-3) team playing its first regional contest in 11 years, Ducharme’s initial score proved a backbreaker. “It took so long for their first goal to happen, I felt like our girls were down and like, ‘We’re never going to be able to get that goal’ because it was just taking so long,” Brening said. “I felt like they still could, and then they started getting tired. At Central, we don’t have the depth.”
Nevertheless, the Lady Bears could still fall back on their first district championship since 1998 and only the second in program history. They’re also the only county team that advanced to regionals this winter. It’s a stark reversal for a squad that won a combined 10 games in Brening’s three previous seasons at the helm. “It took a lot of heartache to get this far from four years ago,” Brening said. “I saw progress last year, and I set some high goals, high standards. I wanted my 50 goals this year. I wanted at least a .500 season. Get one district win. But they did it all this year. How can we be in (the locker room) and be sad?”
A night later at Weeki Wachee, the boys 3A-District 7 finale took place between top-seeded Pasco and second-seeded Nature Coast, attempting to claim its second straight district crown.
A back-and-forth matchup in the first half gave way to the Pirates dominating after halftime and beating the Sharks, 6-3.
“Awful,” Nature Coast head coach Ian Wald said of his team’s play. “In every way. We gave them a game plan; they didn’t execute it. It was our worst game of the season.”
Less than four minutes it, Pasco (15-3-3) got on the board when Eduardo Montes scored on a rebound. The Sharks (16-5-1) knotted it up when Hunter Reid put back in a shot by Gil Delgado in the 15th minute, but two minutes later the Pirates went back in front on a Jake Baker header, assisted by Esteban Perez
Reid again tied the score, in the 26th minute, cashing in on a throw-in by Vinny Stulec. With just under three minutes to go in the first half, Perez notched the go-ahead goal off an assist by Jake Starling. Pasco added a goal early in the second half by Jason Nicolette, with an assist by Tyler Dueker, and a handball resulted in Perez scoring on a penalty kick, making it 5-2 in the 59th minute. The Pirates’ Corey Mills suffered an apparent head injury and was taken away by ambulance, resulting in a lengthy delay. Mills confirmed via Twitter on Saturday that he was OK. When play resumed, Nature Coast’s Trey Hall and Montes exchanged goals to account for the final margin. The Sharks will now travel to Sunlake for a regional quarterfinal on Thursday at 7 p.m. Nature Coast lost to the Seahawks in the final week of the regular season, 2-1.
“It’s 3-2 going into halftime and we just never, ever settled down in our game,” Wald said. “We didn’t play our game for 80 minutes. Pasco pressured hard and they didn’t let off, and we had a hard time overcoming.
“It’s very disappointing. We trained for 21 games since September to go back-to-back (as district champs). So we didn’t achieve our goal. But our next goal is to win the first-ever (regional) playoff game.”
Earlier in the 3A-7 Tournament, Nature Coast beat Hernando (5-17-1) on Monday, 8-0, and Springstead on Wednesday, 2-0. The Eagles (11-11-1) had edged Wesley Chapel in penalty kicks on Monday, 1-0.
Weeki Wachee (10-6-3) captured its Monday quarterfinal against Zephyrhills, 5-1, but fell to Pasco on Wednesday, 4-1.
Central (2-19) lost on Tuesday to Mount Dora in its first-round game of the 2A-6 Tournament at The Villages, 5-0. Also Tuesday, Hernando Christian Academy (12-11) went down to Brandon-Tampa Bay HEAT in the 1A-5 Tournament it hosted, 4-2.
Weightlifitng
On Saturday in the 1A-Region V girls weightlifting meet at Leesburg, Nature Coast came in second and Hernando seventh.
For the Lady Sharks, senior Ashley Gentz locked up her third trip to states by taking first place at 129 pounds, benching 160 pounds and hoisting 180 in the clean-and-jerk for a 340 total.
At 139, Nature Coast’s Samantha Traudt (155-175—330) edged teammate Annelise Rentas (150-175—325) for the top spot. Only regional champions earned automatic state berths; the rest will have to wait to hear on at-large bids.
Basketball
Friday night, Nature Coast squeaked out a 58-56 victory over Hernando in boys basketball, improving to 17-5 overall while finishing 12-0 in 5A-7.
In girls basketball, Springstead set a new school record for victories in a season with a 46-29 triumph over Gulf on Monday night. That broke a mark established in 1990-91 when the Lady Eagles went 13-10. A loss to Central on Wednesday, 77-60, left Springstead at 14-7 overall.
Weeki Wachee downed Gulf on Wednesday, 39-32, and Clearwater Central Catholic on Thursday, 46-38, to wrap up its first-ever winning regular season at 14-10.
As for the HCA girls, they finished up the regular season at 13-4 with a 45-41 win over Tampa-Carrollwood Day on Friday. Mary Jackson, Cayla Phillips and Lauren Zappone each scored 11 points. The Lady Lions now head into the 2A-4 Tournament at First Academy-Leesburg this coming week as the top seed, facing the hosts on Monday at 7 p.m.
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.