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Preps

Warhawks' energy zaps Green Devils

ST. PETERSBURG -- The wear on the Green Devils showed. St. Petersburg moved slowly to the ball, were run over on defense, and got few shots solid on goal against Seminole.

And with little fight, the Warhawks beat the Devils 2-0 for the championship at Northeast.

"Our guys are not just beat up and tired, several of them are sick," said St. Petersburg coach Dave Williams, who added that seven of his players have some form of the flu.

Seminole (18-6-2) appeared to be just the opposite of St. Petersburg (13-5-2), looking to have endless energy.

"I was real happy with the way we came out tonight," Warhawk coach Rick Masi said. "We picked up the intensity tonight and they kept it up."

Seminole forward Richard Legg scored both goals in the first half. The first came in the 17th minute on a shot from the back of the box that hooked high, just to the right of keeper Alex Bowers. He hit again in the 36th minute off a corner kick from Joey Brown.

The Warhawk defense stifled the Green Devils the entire game.

"We can put two guys to every one of theirs so we can get good touches on the ball and we can force them into mistakes," said Warhawk sweeper Drew Greenfield.

St. Petersburg showed a little more life in the second period, coming out early with two quick shots on goal.

"It's unfortunate that weren't able to find our game until the second half," Williams said.

But even then, the best the Green Devils could do was shut the Warhawks out. St. Petersburg only got four shots on goal in the second period.

As district champion, Seminole secured home field advantage in next week's regional quarterfinal against Countryside. The Green Devils will travel to Palm Harbor University to play the Hurricanes.

-- LAURA LEE

Countryside puts it away

CLEARWATER -- With 5:15 left in the game, Palm Harbor University's Brian Torro served it in from the corner, and Jeff Livingston's header into the net gave the Hurricanes the go-ahead goal in a 2-1 win for the district championship.

Palm Harbor started the scoring with 21:40 left when Chris Belmont served the ball into a crowd in front of the Cougars goal. Felix Tan gained control and kicked it past goalkeeper Brian Linn.

A scary moment occurred in the second half when Linn collided with the Hurricanes' Alex Delgado, who was knocked unconscious and lay face down in front of the Countryside goal for more than two minutes. Delgado finally came to and shook it off to return later in the match.

Countryside tied the score at 1 on Kris Lapham's goal, which was assisted by Steven Whiteside.

The Hurricanes controlled the ball for most of the match and kept Linn busy. The Cougars goalkeeper had 13 saves.

Palm Harbor coach Juan Pablo Pinzon reflected on the continuing rivalry between the two clubs: "Every game is a challenge, but when we play these guys it's almost like another level of intensity."

-- STEVE FOLEY

Osceola falls short

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.

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.

"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.

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.

-- JEREMY RASMUSSEN

Mustangs' run ends

SARASOTA -- With two victories in the district tournament, Northside Christian equaled its win total in the regular season and entered the final as just another team.

That did not bode well against Sarasota Cardinal Mooney, 18-0-2 and ranked sixth in the state.

The result was expected as the Cougars repeated as champions with a 4-0 victory.

Even though the Mustangs' improbable tournament run came to an end, they refused to press their chins to their chests.

"We're not down at all," Northside Christian coach Chris Schank said. "We're happy we were able to make it this far."

The Mustangs, in their second season of varsity soccer, are in the playoffs for the first time and will play at Fort Myers Bishop Verot in the region quarterfinals Thursday.

Northside (4-14-2) advanced on solid goalkeeping from Todd Redmond, who recorded shutouts in the quarterfinals and semifinals, and opportunistic scoring.

In the championship game, though, Cardinal Mooney dictated the pace and ended Redmond's streak of shutouts with goals by Randy Warren and Juan Chavez in the first half.

-- BOB PUTNAM

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