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© St. Petersburg Times, published January 26, 2002
PINELLAS PARK -- Pinellas Park spent all season trying to earn a little respect. It finally got some Friday night after a convincing 4-1 win against Clearwater in the Pinellas County Athletic Conference final.
The Patriots (13-8-3) won their first PCAC title. They defeated Northeast 6-2 on Thursday to win the South Division championship.
"We had a bad ending to last season, so, before the end of this season, we had a little talk," Pinellas Park coach Larry Ferrol said. "We said that if we're going to do this, we had to play as a team. It has to be a team effort or we're not going to win."
Thomas Schrech led the scoring effort with two goals. Nikola Meandzija and Diego Cabrera also scored, and Mike Izzo was solid in the net with five saves.
The game didn't start well for the Patriots. Just seconds into the game, Clearwater's Ian Cruea had a header hit off the crossbar from 10 yards. In the 16th minute, Clearwater scored the first goal off a perfect cross from Steve Goodrow. John Schultz knocked it in from 8 yards for a 1-0 lead.
Then, during a 13-minute span, Pinellas Park put the game away. In the 22nd minute, Meandzija scored from 15 yards to tie the game. Nine minutes later, Schrech scored his first goal, when he chased down a loose ball before Clearwater goalkeeper Ryan Gregg could get to it. In the 35th minute, Cabrera lofted a shot over Gregg to make it 3-1 at halftime.
Pinellas Park played solid defense in the second half and held the Tornadoes scoreless. Schrech scored the final goal with three minutes left. "I think we've got some respect now," Schrech said.