DADE CITY – It took a decade for the Nature Coast boys soccer program to find success. Now, the Sharks have made it a habit.
For the fourth consecutive season, they’re headed to the regional playoffs. That much was assured on Wednesday with a victory over Weeki Wachee in the Class 3A, District 7 semifinals at Pasco, 4-2.
“It’s awesome,” Nature Coast head coach Ian Wald said. “Four years in a row we’ve made it to the final dance. After a dismal Nature Coast history of soccer we’ve slowly gotten better every single year. Every single year we’ve rewritten the Nature Coast record book, and at some point that becomes difficult to keep matching.
“We’re there right now. We had three goals at the beginning of the year as a team and all three of them are still in play because we just won that match.”
One of those goals is to capture a district championship, which the second-seeded Sharks (14-5-4) will have an opportunity to accomplish Friday night when they return to Dade City for the final against top-seeded Pasco, starting at 7 p.m.
Another goal is to earn the first regional win in team history, which they’ll have a chance to do next Wednesday. Wald declined to reveal the third goal.
None of it would be possible if not for a strong performance in the fourth meeting of the season with the county-rival Hornets (11-5-5). After tying twice in two scheduled matches, 1-1 and 2-2, Nature Coast beat Weeki Wachee in the Coaches Cup final on Jan. 14, 2-0.
“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was very nervous. They’re an extremely talented side. Bailey (Hypes) is a phenomenal player,” Wald said. “The real story is, in those draws they really played better than us. And we beat them 2-0, but our goalie made a couple of big saves. We knew that today was not going to be easy, so we came in fired up.”
“They’ve been the one hurdle that we haven’t been able to get over, them and Pasco, the two teams that we’ve struggled with all season. It’s hard because it’s your seniors’ last game,” Weeki Wachee head coach Shane Tarbox said.
In the 17th minute, Vinny Stulec started the scoring with a goal off an assist by Chris Reckner. Reckner scored himself in the 25th minute, assisted by Jaxsen Soto.
After halftime, Stulec added a second goal in the 46th minute, receiving a pass from Gilbert Delgado, to make it 3-0 in favor of the Sharks.
“Chris Reckner, he made the overlapping run and he crossed it (on the first goal). I just had to stay composed and finish my shot,” Stulec said. “And the second one, Gil Delgado gave me a through ball. I just had to pick my head up, find where the goalie was and place it in the corner.
“It’s a big win. I’ve got a couple of friends on Weeki Wachee, so it feels good to beat them. But I also feel sad for them.”
The Hornets did make it interesting down the stretch, when Hypes cashed in on a penalty kick in the 60th minute, then assisted Kameron Benvenuto on a goal in the 65th minute.
But with 8:20 left, Trey Hall received a penalty kick and provided an insurance goal, allowing Nature Coast to finish off its second win of the tournament, following a 6-1 thumping of seventh-seeded Hernando on Monday.
“We started playing about the last 25 minutes of the game. Started creating some more opportunities, putting pressure on them, getting them back on their heels,” said Tarbox, whose team won 6-2 over sixth-seeded Zephyrhills on Monday. “You get two goals back, you’ve got a close game, 3-2, and then you get a questionable call and it kind of went from there.
“We’re losing a lot of seniors this year. You’ve just got to kind of wait and see what you get next year. We’ve got a good core of juniors that are here now. We’ve just got to wait and see what comes in as freshmen or transfers, and then we’ll go from there.”
Later Wednesday, Pasco topped fourth-seeded Springstead in the other semi, 3-1. Zach Krafick scored the goal for the Eagles (13-8-4), who had beaten fifth-seeded Wesley Chapel on Monday, 4-2.
In two regular-season contests, Nature Coast lost 2-1 to the Pirates on Nov. 9 and played them to a scoreless tie on Dec. 14.
“We have a game plan,” Wald said. “And we believe that if we stick to it for 80 minutes and don’t stray away from it, that it’ll spell success.”
Follow Chris Bernhardt Jr. on Twitter @cpbernhardtjr.