Patriots, Wolves roll into final

By TERRY JONES
Published January 27, 2005

LITHIA - Freedom and Newsome won semifinal matches Wednesday night and will meet Friday for the championship.

Vanessa Rangel's hat trick helped Freedom shut out Armwood 4-0 and Newsome blanked Tampa Bay Tech 8-0 in one half; the game was called early because of the eight-goal mercy rule. "We had a tough time getting cranked up," Freedom coach Dave Outlaw said. "However, when we finally started finishing, everything else seemed to fall into place. Armwood has a good program. Their team tied both us and Freedom during regular-season play."

Rangel started and finished scoring for the Patriots, putting her first score into the back of the net at 15 minutes and her third with less than a minute remaining in the match. Her second goal came with eight minutes left in the game.

Christine McClelland broke the Rangel scoring monopoly at 82 minutes, blasting the ball in from 10 yards out.

Armwood battled tough against Freedom until the final 12 minutes, when the Patriots scored three goals. The Hawks kept the battle in the midfield most of the first half, where neither side took charge.

"It was still anybody's match until that second goal was scored," Outlaw said.

With its win, Newsome has recorded six 8-0 matches this season, including three against Tampa Bay Tech.

From the fourth minute of the match, the Wolves seemed to score at will.

"Our girls came out sharp and scored early," Newsome coach Kathy Dodd said. "Our crosses were working crisply from both sides and someone seemed to be there. Friday night will be a different kind of match though. We split games with Freedom in the regular season and they have a highly skilled team."

Wednesday night, Angela Murphy started the scoring onslaught at four minutes into the match. Danielle Joyce added number two five minutes later and the rest of the first half was a constant attack against the Titans net.

Joyce and Megan Foley each scored twice. Lisa Heise, Casey Feeney, and Tara McCluskey added the other three.

[Last modified January 27, 2005, 00:41:13]