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Little goes right for Gators

From a late-arriving bus to two early goals, Land O'Lakes' season comes to an end with a 5-2 loss to Seminole.

By RODNEY PAGE

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 14, 2001

SEMINOLE -- There was good news and bad news for Land O'Lakes in Tuesday's Class 3A regional semifinal against Seminole.

The good news was the Gators' bus finally showed up after a 40-minute wait that made them nearly an hour late.

The bad news was that after an 80-minute wait, their defense never showed up.

Seminole blitzed Land O'Lakes early and often, cruising to a 5-2 win. It was the worst loss for Land O'Lakes (25-5-1) this season, and it ended the Gators' streak of two consecutive final four appearances.

Seminole (19-5-4) advanced to the regional final for the first time since 1984.

Land O'Lakes was supposed to board its bus at 4 p.m. in order to beat heavy traffic on U.S. 19. But the bus didn't arrive until 4:40 ... after the girls bus departed for its 8 p.m. game at Seminole. The long trip took its toll on the Gators.

Seminole scored two minutes into the game when Brandon Giles looped a ball over goalkeeper Greg Kline's head.

In the sixth minute, Phil Caldwell headed in a free kick cross by Damon Lister to quickly make it 2-0.

"The first 10 minutes, we weren't there. We were asleep," Land O'Lakes coach Mark Pearson said.

"We only had 20 minutes to warm up after spending an hour and a half on the bus. It was ridiculous. I guarantee that if this was the football team or the basketball team the bus would've been there at four o'clock. It's a horrible way to end the season."

The Gators had a moment of hope in the eighth minute, when Brian Bishop crossed a left-footed pass to Jason Lipinski, who buried the volley in the upper-right corner.

But Seminole scored again in the 26th minute on another Caldwell goal to make it 3-1 at halftime.

"Even after we scored to make it 2-1, I could tell we still weren't ourselves," Pearson said.

Seminole kept up its intensity and scored two minutes into the second half when Giles crossed to Steve Toccalino 10 yards from the goal. Toccalino knocked in the right-footer to make it 4-1.

It was 5-1 by the time John Paul Rodriguez scored in injury time for the Gators' last goal of the game and of the season.

"We knew that their defenders were a bit small and that we might be able to take it to them," Giles said. "I was able to get open a lot more than usual.

"We played with a lot of intensity because we knew we haven't played that way in a couple of games."

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