Raiders, Cougars strong on soccer field

Both Durant and Plant City were feeling pretty good about things heading into this week's girls soccer District 5A-8 tournament.

Durant, after a troubling start to the season, has reeled off seven wins capped by a 5-0 victory over the Raiders on Jan. 8. That victory gave Durant the third seed, with Plant City settling for the No. 4 spot, in the district tournament under way at East Bay.

Although the Raiders were dominated by Durant, they still finished the regular season with a winning mark at 7-6.

Plant City was matched up with Riverview for a scheduled first-round game Tuesday, and if the Raiders win they will be taking on East Bay today in an 8 p.m. semifinal. Durant faced Armwood on Tuesday night and assuming the Cougars won, they have a tall task in taking on Newsome in the 6 p.m. semifinal.

Durant started the season with a 1-6-1 mark. But those defeats were all against strong teams and the tie was against East Bay. Durant lost in its regular-season finale 3-1 at Gaither, meaning the Cougars brought an 8-7-1 mark into the district tournament.

"When we started the streak, I said we were the best 2-6-1 team in the county. Then we were the best 3-6-1 team," Durant head coach Dick Sheffield said. "Any time you're not winning like was the case, it's tough. But we kept working hard, and now we're finishing our chances."

That's a definite: except for a 1-0 win against Riverview, the five goals against Plant City were the fewest Durant put up during the streak.

Twelve Cougar players scored goals during the streak.

"It says a lot about our movement of the ball. People can't just gear up to stop one player against us," Sheffield said.

To illustrate the point, the Cougars only have one player with a double-digit goal total, senior Marissa Skindel with 12. But there are plenty of dangerous players, and some of them come up from the defensive side of the field to contribute.

Sophomore defender Gillian Sweet has just two goals but has nine assists. Jessie Ross, also a defender, has five goals and five assists and her throw-ins are as effective as long kicks.

Center midfielder Nicole Grinnell likewise has nine assists to go with three goals. And Christy Faliero has just two goals, but a whopping 15 assists, many off corner kicks.

Riley Andreu is second on the team with six goals, Ashley Copen has five and Sarai Leon has come up with four goals all in the last few games. All three players are sophomores.

"We had all of our tough games early on. We lost to teams like Seminole, which is the best team in Pinellas County along with Palm Harbor, and then we played Freedom, and Bloomingdale and Newsome. That's not too shabby a schedule," Sheffield said.

The Cougars will have to find a way to beat Newsome. Due to a quirky tiebreaker, East Bay was awarded the top seed and Newsome drew the No. 2 spot for the district tourney, making the Wolves the potential semifinal opponent for Durant. Teams must win the district semifinals to reach the playoffs.

"We will have to play Newsome a little bit differently than we did the first time," said Sheffield, noting that the Cougars will probably pull back more and go for a low-scoring victory. Newsome beat Durant by a 4-0 score on Dec. 3.

Tonight's semifinal winners will meet for the district championship Friday at 7 p.m.

Plant City senior Brittany Lindsey has nine goals to lead the Raiders, and sophomore Kiersta Castagno had been strong as goal tender, averaging 10 saves per game.

Janeth Antunez and Christina Corzine have been tremendous on defense.

"They've worked very hard this year," Raider head coach Wendy Young said. "Overall I'm very proud of the girls this year. Just to have a wining record is an accomplishment in itself."