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BOYS SOCCER: Gators Dominate Without Cutrofello

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: December 4, 2008

BROOKSVILLE – If Land O' Lakes boys soccer coach Mark Pearson ever wondered what his Gators would be like without leading scorer Dominic Cutrofello, he found out Wednesday night.

Cutrofello, with 16 goals in Land O' Lakes' first 8 games, received two yellow cards in the 25th minute resulting in an automatic ejection but the Gators overcame his absence to shut out previously unbeaten Brooksville Central 3-0 and take sole possession of first place in Class 5A-District 7.

Playing on an obvious small field, the Gators dominated from the start. Land O' Lakes (7-1-1, 4-0) outshot the Bears 9-0 in the first half with Cutrofello getting four shots before being excused from the game and Frank Villar hit the post from point-blank range.

"The size of this field is completely ridiculous," Pearson said after the game. "But I thought we had control of the game from the beginning."

Pearson said Central's Bear Den Stadium playing surface was 15 to 20 yards narrower than Gator Stadium and 20 yards shorter.

With the small field, the players were bunched together and not many scoring chances in the first half.

"The only think we had to defend was shots from 50 yards out," Pearson said. "We were strong with the ball in the air and we were strong across the back and moving forward with the ball."

The Gators finally broke the scoreless deadlock in the 46th minute when the rebound from Felix Soto's shot landed on Nathan Dalton foot and he fired a shot off a Central defender and past Bears goalkeeper Mike Ogren. That goal seemed to open the floodgates as 1:35 later, Jon Siragusa scored off the corner kick from Sebastian Garcia. Garcia got the final goal in the 58th minute with Soto getting the assist.

"It was a credit to our boys for remaining focused," Pearson said. "We lost a big player in Dominic. Thankfully, we'll have him back Friday. We showed tonight we can score goals without Dominic. That gave us a lot of confidence as well."

While Land O' Lakes goalkeeper Alex Spock wasn't called on to make any saves, Orgen recorded 13 that keep Central (8-1, 3-1) in the game.

"I thought we clearly had six of seven opportunities to score," Pearson said. "He made some nice saves on us. We had some nice 20- to 25-yards out that he made nice saves on."

Despite the loss, Central coach Hank Deslaurier felt the Bears matched up well with Land O' Lakes.

"I think we can play with them," Deslaurier said. "It was a very evenly-matched game. We had a couple of nice opportunities but we didn't take advantage of them. We've got another shot at them."

That next shot will be Jan. 9 at Land O' Lakes. Deslaurier may have felt the match was evenly played but the final statistics say otherwise. The Gators outshot the Bears 20-1.

Land O' Lakes 0 3—3
Central 0 0—0
Goals—Dalton, Siragusa, Garcia. Assists—Garcia, Soto. Shots on goal—LOL 20, C 1. Saves—Spock (LOL) 0; Ogren (C) 13. Records—LOL 7-1-1, C 8-1.

Correspondent Rick Harmon can be reached at tampabaystringer@gmail.com

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