Mariner girls cruise to regional soccer win

Acosta's hat trick, two assists help lead Tritons past St Petersburg, 8-0

By CJ HADDAD cjhaddad@breezenewspapers com

The road to defending a state championship started with a dominating win for the Mariner girls soccer team Tuesday night

The No 1 seed in the FHSAA 5A Region 3 bracket dispatched of its opponent in convincing fashion as the Tritons (15-4-

1) toppled No 8 seed St Petersburg 8-0 in a shortened match

Mariner scored roughly 30 seconds into the match and never looked back, led by junior and Florida State commit Ryleigh Acosta's hat trick and two assists

“We're taking it one game at a time and we re not looking ahead, and we re not looking back, said Mariner head coach Jami Hagy, now in her sixth season as head coach “We're focusing on each game individually ”

Senior captain Sarah Paddock opened the scoring in the first minute for the home squad as she dribbled past and through defenders into the penalty area and landed her shot In the 12th minute freshman Kelsi Longbardi notched Mariner's second goal as she beat the keeper to a 50/50 ball in space and took a shot that went off the far crossbar and in

Shortly thereafter Acosta lined up to take a free kick about a yard outside of the penalty area and couldn't have struck the ball any better Her shot cleared the wall of defenders and slotted perfectly in the top right corner of the net

“I knew the free kick was a crucial chance for us ” Acosta said of her dazzling goal “I just knew I had to finish the chance so we can continue our season

The Tritons connoted to pour it on in the first half when in minute

19, freshman

Carly Paz sped past the Green Devils' back line and fired a shot past the keeper Nearly 10 minutes later senior captain Kira Wilson headed one in off of an Acosta corner and took a 5-0 lead into the break Hagy said at this point in the year, there's no time to take any opponent lightly This was somewhat of a statement win for

CJ HADDAD

Mariner junior and University of Florida commit Ryleigh Acosta s (20) hat trick and two assists led the Tritons to an 8-0 win in the regional opener Tuesday night

Mariner after losing a heartbreaking district final to North in penalty kicks last week

"We worked hard in practice " Hagy said Obviously we came off that PK loss and the girls were ready to go " Mariner did not take the foot of the gas in the final 40 minutes (though they would not all be needed) as Acosta netted her second of the match just a minute into the second half, as a nifty passing sequence found her one-on-one with the keeper, and she didn't miss her mark In the 60th minute, Acosta found the back of the net once more completing the hat trick

It felt really good especially after the loss against North, Acosta said of her and her team's performance We came into tonight wanting to play our best and how we always play ”

Sophomore Caroline Pelkofski drilled a long-range shot past the St Pete keeper just after the 60th minute to end the match at 80 and send Mariner into the regional semifinals Friday night The Tritons will host No 4 seed Naples at 7 p m

We're going to just try and rest up and focus on our game plan for the next team and go get the job done ” Hagy said

If both Mariner and No 2 North Fort Myers (hosting a regional final versus Baron Collier) advance, both clubs will meet again in the regional final on Feb 14

As for what it will take to repeat as state champs Acosta said “Just taking it one game at a time and playing our brand of soccer

Connect with Associate Sports Editor CJ Haddad on Twitter: @haddad cj

Charlotte ends North Fort Myers' season, 69-52 Red Knight boys stumble in district tournament battle

By CJ HADDAD cjhaddad@breezenewspapers

com

A season filled with milestones for the North Fort Myers basketball team came to a n e n d W e d n e s d a y n i g h t a s t h e R e d Knights fell to Charlotte High School 6952 in district play

A tight first quarter turned into an out-ofr e a c h t a s k f o r N o r t h a s t h e T a r p o n s dropped in 26 points in the second quarter to pull away and never look back

It's just too many empty possessions

(for us) That's really what it is, said North head coach Leland Clifford “It's been the problem all year is that we'll go five possessions without getting a shot ”

The traveling Red Knights stayed even with the No 1 seed in the District 6A-11 tournament in the opening five minutes Early on North went on a 7-0 run highlighted by a Levontai "Bo" Summersett 3point shot to take a lead At the end of the first, the Red Knights only found themselves down 15-11

The second quarter is where things changed as Charlotte went on a 5-0 run to start the quarter The fast-break game size inside and high-percentage shooting from deep put the Tarpons up by 13 halfway through the quarter and take a 20-point lead into halftime Charlotte sustained its 20-point lead when the buzzer sounded to end the third and ultimately won decisively to advance to Friday's District Championship

Wednesday BOYS SOCCER

REGION 5A-3

Seminole Osceola 3, Mariner 2 (2OT):

Maximo Gorosito scored for Mariner in regulation and came within a goalie's fingertips of leveling the match in the final seconds Thomas Castano scored off a corner kick in the second OT for the Tritons (10-85) Golden Gate 2 Parrish Community 1

Barron Collier 4 Northeast 0 Naples 2 Braden River 1 Saturday's semifinals Seminole Osceola at Golden Gate

The Red Knights' usually high-powered o f f e n s e , l e d b y S u m m e r s e t t , Q u e n t i n Wimbush and Atavious Weaver, was held in check after finding openings in the first quarter

C l i f f o r d s a i d h i s t e a m had a difficult time dealing with a change in defensive style from Charlotte (Charlotte) did a good job ” Clifford said “Their game plan was clearly to come in sit in a zone -- we spent a lot of time working on that We broke it and had the lead for a little bit there Then when they switched to man we just mentally didn't make the switch back to our man offense So all night long, they were just still stuck in that idea that they were going to keep running that trap ” T h e R e d K n i g h t s a l s o p l a y a z o n e defense -- one that Clifford said had been battle tested all season long, and successfully “We're a zone team ” he said “We're forcing 24 turnovers a game We're holding teams to shooting roughly 25% from the 3point line We hold teams to about 10 free throws a game The defense has never been the issue here While things didn't end how the squad would have liked it's been a season of mile-

Naples at Barron Collier

Wednesday Feb 15

Semifinal winners

REGION 3A-2

Tampa Prep 6, Oasis 0: The region's top seed ended the Sharks first trip into the regional playoffs at 12-6-2

Bishop Verot 1, Windermere Prep 0: Verot (9-5-6) won its third in a row, moving into the 3A-2 semifinals against No 1 seed Tampa Prep

Lake Highland Prep 2 Fort Meade 1

Tampa Catholic 2, Berkeley Prep 1 Saturday's semifinals stones for the Red Knights Weaver became the first Red Knight in history to record 1,000 rebounds and score 1,000 points in his career Shortly after, Wimbush became the second player in school history to score 1 0 0 0 p o i n t s a n d h e accomplished that feat in just three seasons Earlier in the week, Wimbush also broke a long-time record set by Dion Sanders when he scored 45 points in a win over Riverdale setting t h e a l l - t i m e r e c o r d f o r points in a game That's something that can't be forgotten, Clifford said of his players' accomp l i s h m e n t s “ T h e y ' r e t h e only senior class in the last 2 5 y e a r s t h a t s b e a t e n Dunbar, Bishop Verot and Fort Myers None of those guys had to come here There was nothing here when they did You look at guys like (Wimbush) and (Weaver) and (Summersett), they re as integral to this program being built that anything that I've done Without them, we're not where we're at ” Cape Coral High School dropped its 6A11 semifinal game versus Fort Myers The Green Wave will travel to Charlotte Friday for the district title

Connect with Associate Sports Editor CJ Haddad on Twitter: @haddad cj

Bishop Verot at Tampa Prep Lake Highland Prep at Tampa Catholic Wednesday, Feb 15 Semifinal winners

BOYS BASKETBALL DISTRICT 6A-11

All games 7 p m Charlotte 69, North Fort Myers 52: North's season came to an end, with the Red Knights 10-16 on the year Fort Myers 53, Cape Coral 47: The Seahawks finished the season at 13-11 with See PREP REPORT, page 19A