Boys Soccer

Sidelines

Two Gators still don't have blond ambition

By Compiled by BRANT JAMES, STEVE LEE and KEVIN KELLY

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 17, 2000

Land O'Lakes has sported a new look for the past two games, and it may be on to something.

Half of the players dyed their hair blond before the Gators' 4-0 win over King in the Class 3A, Region 3 quarterfinals on Feb. 10.

By Tuesday night's 5-1 regional semifinal win over Port Charlotte, all but forward Justin Geisler and midfielder Alberto Lopez showed up with blond locks.

Senior midfielder James Bradley said the players would have to work on Geisler and Lopez.

Stay tuned to see if the two holdouts show up with a lighter shade of their black hair for Friday's regional final at Brandon.

Land O'Lakes plays 'Can You Top This?'

Land O'Lakes keeper Greg Kline made six saves in the win over Port Charlotte, but he had competition for the save of the night.

Kline's best stop came when he sprawled to his right to thwart Tim Ehret's penalty kick that would have pulled the Pirates to within 3-2. Teammate J.P. Rodrigues also came up with a spectacular effort, which prevented Port Charlotte from tying the game at 1 early in the second half.

With Kline caught out of position and Danny Adorno lining up a shot from a tough angle at the left post, Rodrigues ran to cover the corner and took Adorno's blast off his thigh.

County teams alive at Tom Varn tourney

Ridgewood meets Hernando at 7 p.m. tonight at Emerson Field. Ridgewood routed South Sumter 9-0 on Tuesday.

Central, which lost to Hudson 13-6, and Springstead, which fell to Zephyrhills, 13-3, in one of the two games not rained out Monday, played Wednesday needing wins to remain in the tourney.

In other winners bracket games, Pasco faces Gulf at 4 p.m. today at Hernando, Land O'Lakes meets Hudson at 7 p.m. at Central and Lecanto faces Zephyrhills at 7 p.m. at Springstead.

The championship is at 6 p.m. Saturday at Hernando.

Springstead looked a long way from reaching any title game after issuing 15 walks and committing four errors in the mercy-rule-shortened loss to the Bulldogs.

"(Zephyrhills) had seven hits," Springstead coach Tracy Clark said.

"We should have been in the ballgame. We can't play with anybody when we play like that."

He's just keeping the seat warm

Derrick McNeil has practiced at shortstop for Land O'Lakes in the preseason, but the senior third baseman knows not to get too comfortable there.

He is just minding the middle until regular shortstop Jeff Baisley takes over. When that will be depends on how the Gators basketball team fares in the post-season.

Baisley is the basketball team's leading scorer.

McNeil, though, knows he has a strong enough arm to make the throw across the diamond, be it from the hot corner of deep in the hole at short.

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