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Preps

Eagles hold off Warriors

2A-9 BOYS: Derek Goforth's hat trick seals Brandon's 3-2 win over Osceola.

By JEREMY RASMUSSEN
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 8, 2003

TAMPA -- In the district final against Osceola, Brandon forward Derek Goforth came up big. The 5-foot-7 sophomore notched a hat trick during the first 13 minutes.

Much of the rest of the match, however, belonged to Osceola, which rallied before falling to the Eagles 3-2.

Brandon coach Allen Ware said he was counting on a big game from Goforth after the Eagles lost starting forward Andy Skiffington to a red card in Thursday's semi against Lakewood.

"Derek comes in and does all the grunt work for us," Ware said. "He hustles. He fights. He keeps going."

During Goforth's early outburst, he twice found loose balls in the goal box after long throwins from Jason Poole and was in the right place to score.

On his third goal, Osceola failed to mark him at the top of the penalty box, and he blasted it into the upper corner.

After that, Osceola tightened its defense and placed a player on the sideline in front of Poole to obstruct his throwins.

"We're weak in the air, and they exposed that in the first 10 minutes," coach Tim Rachford said. "Then we made some adjustments. They won the first 20, and we won the second 60. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough."

The Warriors scored in the 32nd minute as Jason Villalba headed in a cross from Thomas Schreck. With two minutes left before halftime, Adam Bocanegra took a long cross from Brett Johnson, nailing it in the right corner.

The second half saw chances from both, as Poole and Reid Macko had shots hit the post, and Osceola's Colin Kerwin knocked a corner kick from Schreck just over the crossbar.

Brandon has won a district title in three of the past four seasons. It hosts Lake Gibson in a regional quarterfinal Thursday. The Eagles topped the Braves 3-2 in December's Student Sports Tournament.

Osceola will be "Road Warriors" again, traveling to Bartow. The Warriors twice advanced to the state finals in 1996-97 after losing in the district final.

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