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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 1, 2001
SPRING HILL -- Springstead boys soccer coach Sal Calabrese was hoping his team would face its second strong test of the season Friday night against Ridgewood.
He'll just have to settle for another lopsided win.
The Eagles soured an otherwise sweet week for Ridgewood (3-2-2), setting an early tone with a penalty-kick score and rolling to a 5-0 victory against the Rams in Class 3A, District 7 play.
"Professionally played," Calabrese said. "Just a good, quality win.
"We did what we needed to do, which was maintain possession of the ball, knock it around and finish."
Earlier in the week, the Rams had beaten perennial Pasco County power Land O'Lakes and River Ridge for the first time in school history, but were scrambling early Friday.
After Ryan Greene was pulled down in the box in the fifth minute, Bobby Colon converted a penalty kick that started the Rams grousing and the Eagles attacking.
"(The penalty kick) made a big difference for us," Ridgewood coach Ed McComiskey said.
"Once that happened, my guys kind of got down and stayed down for a while."
Four minutes after Ridegwood's Jake Stuchell missed an empty net from five feet, Springstead's Eric Loftsen scored off a corner kick for a 2-0 lead at 24:19.
The defender saved a goal two minutes later when he headed away a Jose Anazco shot at the goal mouth, and Greg Emmerman broke Ridgewood's will just before halftime when he rolled in his first goal of the season past Sean Sendra.
"We missed five or six shots that should have been goals," McComiskey said.
"But they outplayed us. There's no two ways about it. They're a good team and they play well together."
Emmerman and Danny Flores added goals in a second half dominated by the Eagles' ball-control play.
Springstead has outscored opponents 16-1 this season, the only goal allowed in a tie against county- and district-rival Central on Nov. 20.
Springstead goaltender Dan Calabrese had to make just four saves against the disjointed Rams attack.
Sendra made 10 saves for Ridgewood before being pulled, then was re-inserted when backup keeper Greg Hodges received a yellow card in the second half.