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Alonso Eliminates Plant City In 6A-2

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A Tribune staff report

Published: February 1, 2008

PLANT CITY - Alonso junior Simon Gomez said his goal in the 75th minute of the Ravens' 1-0 Class 6A-Region 2 boys soccer quarterfinal win against Plant City (14-3-3) was pretty simple.

Gomez's 20th goal of the season came after the ball squirted out of a scrum to him, and he struck with his right foot to send the ball past the goalkeeper to the far post.

"I actually don't remember what happened before the shot," Gomez said. "I remember it was bouncing before me and I hit it with my only chance."

The match's first half was back-and-forth as both teams had early chances. But the second half saw a change for the Ravens (22-6-4) from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2 setup, and that led to more Alonso chances. The Ravens had a 13-3 shots-on-goal advantage in the second half.

Defensively, the Raiders played strong. Right back defender Juan Lozano marked the Ravens' leading scorer Julio Perez for most of the match before going out late in the match with a leg injury. Raiders coach KC Van Der Luit said he knew the teams would play a close game.

"I told our guys that one goal would decide this match," Van Der Luit said. "You could see in the first half how it was really tight we had only one real chance each."

For Alonso, the team is looking to the future and striving to get back to the final four.

"We played harder in the second half because we want to get back to where we were last year again," Gomez said. "This could have been the last game for our seniors, we all want to keep going."

Jarrett Guthrie

King Scores Hat Trick In Gaither's 3-0 Win

TAMPA - Starting the postseason without one of your top scorers is not a position most teams want to be in. But with senior striker Darnell King and plenty of other talent on the roster, the Gaither boys soccer team had more than Sarasota Riverview could handle in Thursday's Class 6A-Region 2 quarterfinals.

Playing without Brendan Howard, the Cowboys' second-leading scorer who is nursing an ankle injury, King used his superior speed and technical ability to light up the rams for a hat trick. With freshman goalkeeper John Nardozzi and his defense recording another clean sheet, Gaither (20-3-2) earned a 3-0 victory against Riverview and a berth in Tuesday's regional semifinals.

There's an outside chance Howard could return for that home match against rival Alonso. But the way the Cowboys played Thursday in his absence, they could wind up reaching the state finals without him.

"Coming into the season, I would have said absolutely not," Sims said about Gaither's chances of advancing to the state championships in Fort Lauderdale. "But the farthest I've been in seven years was to the final four with a team that I thought had the least amount of talent.

"This team, it just seems like when someone goes down, someone has always stepped up."

Thursday, it wasn't just King, who easily could have had a five-goal night. Any number of Cowboys played with a sense of urgency against a physical Rams team. Among them was senior Gavin Scott, Gaither's high-performance engine in the midfield who seemed to be everywhere on the field. Two minutes after slamming a long free kick off the post, Scott sent a corner to King, who headed it perfectly into goal at the near post for a 1-0 Cowboys lead.

Bill Ward

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