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CLASS 2A BOYS SOCCER: Not content just to be here, Brandon comes out blazing and hangs on late for the victory.
By MIKE READLING, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 28, 2003
TAMPA -- Having simply reached the state tournament for the first time, Brandon was looking to end another long drought Thursday night in its semifinal against Rockledge.
Fittingly, it happened to be raining when the Eagles finally washed away all those years of going home before the last game of the season and secured their first championship game berth at Ed Radice Park with a 2-1 win.
Brandon, which had never advanced past the region final and had been in postseason play only six times since 1982, will play St. Augustine Nease, a 4-1 winner over Gulf Breeze, Saturday at 12:30 at Ed Radice. The Panthers (28-2-2) will also be playing for their first state championship.
"I'm feeling pretty good," said midfielder Jason Poole, who scored and had an assist. "We knew we had the game when we went into halftime."
At that point the Eagles were up 2-0 and had dominated the first 40 minutes. Actually, "kicked our butts," is how Rockledge coach Skip Arrich put it.
But the Eagles might have been too confident and the Raiders (17-7-4) put quite a scare into them when Matt Cermack scored four minutes into the second half and then led an attack that would produce two disallowed goals in two minutes before the 50th minute.
The first Raider goal to come off the board was ruled a push in the back. The second happened when Brandon goalkeeper Gilchrist Callahan bobbled a skipping ball and dove to corral it.
As he laid out, Callahan was kicked in the face, prompting the referee to blow the whistle almost immediately for an injury timeout. Almost simultaneously, a Rockledge player buried a shot from about 6 yards. "The referee told me he stopped the play for an injury," Arrich said. "I was really surprised about that because the ball was right in the mouth of the goal and normally they'll let you play with kids laying all over the field."
As Callahan was helped from the field with a broken nose and mild concussion, Brandon (22-1-1) seized the opportunity to regroup and held off Rockledge the rest of the way. Callahan later said he would play Saturday.
"I'm going to have to have an arm or a leg falling off to not play," the sophomore keeper said as he held a bloody ice packe to his swollen nose.