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'Canes find their 'A' game

By KEITH NIEBUHR

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 3, 2001

INVERNESS -- The rust is gone.

One night after playing its worst game of the year, Citrus was back to its old tricks in the Class 2A, District 7 finals. Too bad for Lecanto. Citrus outshot and outdefended the Panthers in a 4-0 win that gave the Hurricanes their fourth consecutive district title.

"We played much better tonight," Citrus coach Brady Bogart said. "It was a complete turnaround."

Jessica Macdonald, Amber Presnick, Tabitha Schrufer and Sonya Segars scored for Citrus (20-1-3), which hosts Springstead in the first round of the 2A state playoffs Tuesday. Lecanto (16-4-2) plays at Zephyrhills.

"We didn't play our best game tonight and they did," Lecanto coach Kevin Towne said.

When the teams met three weeks ago, Citrus needed a late goal to win 4-3. This game wasn't nearly as close. The Hurricanes had 25 shots to only two for Lecanto and controlled the tempo for nearly the entire game.

"We knew we had to play our A-plus game," Citrus midfielder Amanda Yoder said. "(Lecanto) really wanted it and they came out with a lot of emotion. We had to match their emotion."

Citrus controlled the ball from the start, but couldn't find the net until Presnick dribbled through several defenders and sneaked a shot past Lecanto keeper Lisa Arnold with 4:42 left in the first half. Lecanto hung tough but caught a bad break five minutes into the second half when Citrus defender Tabitha Schrufer crushed a ball from 30 yards out that fell just over a leaping Arnold and into the net for a 2-0 lead.

Most of the 'Canes' offense was set up with defense.

Lecanto had trouble getting the ball past midfield and every time Amber Gidden, its leading scorer, touched the ball she was mobbed by defenders.

"Defensively, we played great tonight," Bogart said. "They didn't get any looks at all. We shut them down and didn't give them any good opportunities."

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