District soccer: All Saints boys, Victory girls capture 2A-7 district titles
LAKELAND — All Saints coach Nigel Boardman put together a strong schedule so his team would be ready for the district tournament and postseason, and that strategy paid off.
The Saints missed opportunities to put the game away but prevailed in a hard-fought, 2-1 victory over Tampa Universal Academy on Thursday night in the championship match of the Class 2A, District 7 boys soccer tournament at Santa Fe Catholic.
Going into the tournament, Boardman liked his team's chances.
"I felt confident," he said. "We played a lot of big schools. We took our licks earlier in the season."
When the Saints (7-9) played in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference tournament, the Saints "did very well against them." So Boardman felt his team was ready for the postseason.
It wasn't the Saints' best performance, Boardman said, but it was good enough to give the Saints back-to-back district titles and their fourth overall under Boardman.
"I'll say this about this team," Boardman said. "They find away to get over the line. They never stop. They work hard. They deserve it, back to back. I'm very happy."
All the scoring was done in the first half, and the Saints got the game-winner less than a minute after Universal tied the score.
Magnus Darrington started the scoring in the 14th minute when he converted a header off Sam St. Germain's corner kick.
About 10 minutes later, a failed throw-in by All Saints — it never went inbounds — led the game-tying goal.
After the Saints throw-in landed out of bounds on All Saints' half of the field, Universal's ensuing throw-in was played to the middle of he field, and a curving shot from about 35 yards out took a funny bounce that caught goalkeeper Killian Wright off guard for a goal.
On the ensuing kickoff, Ethan Cajuste made a run down left side and got a clean look. His shot, however went off the far post but came out to Jacque St. Germain, who buried the rebound.
In the second half, All Saints had several chances to add to its lead.
Nate Yoder made a run and was going in with just the keeper in front of him who broke up the run. However, the ball went back to Colton De Roos' whose shot sailed high.
Later, Cajuste made a run and centered a pass to Sam St. Germain at the mouth of the goal, but the shot was chipped over the crossbar.
A minute later, Sam St. Germain got a open look, but his shot sail high.
"As good as we played in the semis — we almost played error free — today we didn't defend that great, the ball was bouncing too much, and we had chances to finish the game that we couldn't put in," Boardman said. "We almost created all the drama for ourselves."
Universal had numerous chances on throw-ins that went in the box in front of the goal along with some corner kicks but couldn't convert. Wright was aggressive on the plays, either catching the ball or punching it clear.
After Universal's top scorer notched three goals in the semifinals, Boardman had defender Yohance Love mark him. Love shut down the high-scoring forward the entire game.
Girls Soccer
2A-7: Victory wins 1st district title
Victory Christian prevailed on penalty kicks to defeat All Saints, 1-0, in the championship match of the 2A-7 district girls soccer tournament at Seffner Christian.
It was the first district title in school history for girls soccer. The Storm played in honor of the program's first coach Delisle Edoizin, who passed away last spring.
In the shootout, Victory converted on its first four shots from Diana Salgado, Kaycee Hunter, Addie Lemmond and Hayden Fullwood.
All Saints missed on its third shot, and Victory goalkeeper Alaina Fountain's save on the Saints' fourth attempt sealed the victory.
“It was a surreal moment for me as soon as I made that winning save,” she said.
Victory (13-4-2) advanced to Tuesday's regional quarterfinals with the victory and likely will be the No. 3 seed.
Going into the tournament, All Saints (10-5-2) was seeded sixth in the region and Victory was No. 7. Victory and the District 5 champion will jump over all Saints in the final seedings for the playoffs, but the Saints have the chance to hang on to the No. 8 and final playoff spot.
3A-9: For Meade fall in final
Sarasota Cardinal Mooney knocked off Fort Meade, 7-2, in the 3A-9 championship match.
Fort Meade (10-8-1) finished runner-up.
Audrey Slater and Marisela Martinez scored goals for the Miners.
Roy Fuoco can be reached at roy.fuoco@theledger.com or at 863-802-7526. Follow him on Twitter: @RoyFuoco.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: District soccer: All Saints boys, Victory girls capture district titles
