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BOYS SOCCER: Freshman Leads Gulf to Tie With Pasco

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By RICK HARMON

Tribune correspondent

Published: January 7, 2009

DADE CITY - With the junior varsity season over, Gulf coach Grant Wortz promoted quite a few freshmen and sophomores. One of those was freshman Jared Perlmutter.

Perlmutter had played a few minutes in a couple varsity games but this was his first time getting any extended playing time. He even bought new cleats for the occasion.

He might want to think about bronzing those cleats as his unassisted goal in the 80th minute gave the Buccaneers a hard-fought 1-1 tie against host Pasco to keep Gulf's Class 4A-Disttict 8 title hopes alive. Gulf currently leads the district with a 9-0-4 record but Pasco is 9-0-3. The Pirates would win the district if they win their remaining four district games.

"It felt really good [to score]," Perlmutter said. "It was really lucky. Adnan [Baset] wrapped the ball and it hit off [Matt] Juhnke's head right on to my foot."

Both teams started sluggish with not many scoring chances until Pasco's Juan Davila scored the Pirates only goal in the 73rd minute. Play seemed to pickup after that with both teams having scoring chances but neither team could find the back of the net.

Pasco had two good scoring chances in the second half. In the 52nd minute, Daniel Cano sent a rocket shot from 20 yards out but Gulf goalkeeper Zach Waller was able to knock it away. In the 66th minute, Davila fed a perfect pass to Blain Sanderson but the shot went wide.

The Pirates (10-2-3) played the game without head coach Barry Grayling, who was home ill. Assistant coach and former Pasco player Antonio Corona was on the sideline in Grayling's absence.

Gulf (10-0-5) had a chance to tie the score in the 79th minute when a foul was called just outside the 18-yard line. Juhnke took the free kick but missed the net.

"I thought we had a couple of scoring chances that we could have buried but it didn't work out," Wortz said. "They have a couple fantastic players and they took care of their chances. They had it won and we stole a tie from them just like they did at our place."

Pasco and Gulf tied 1-1 on Dec. 1. If the two teams tie for the best record, points earned against the No. 3 seed will be used to determine the top seed and the first-round bye. If Hudson finishes third, that tiebreaker can't be used because both Gulf and Pasco earned a win and a tie against the Cobras. The district would be decided by either points earned in road district games, then home district games and finally, a coin flip.

Gulf has district games with Wiregrass Ranch, Sunlake and Springstead; Pasco has games with Springstead, Zephyrhills, Wiregrass Ranch and Hernando. The district tournament begins Jan. 26 at Springstead.

Gulf 0 1—1
Pasco 1—1

Goals—Perlmutter (G); Davila (P). Shots on goal—G 10, P 12. Saves—Waller (G) 7; Tanguma (P) 3. Records—G 10-0-5, P 10-2-3.

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

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