Girls Soccer: Legoas guides East Lake to 5A-11 finals

The success rate of converting corner kicks into goals is, to put it bluntly, not high. Corners do offer a nice advantage for serving a ball into a jam-packed goal box, but actually finding the back of the net is far from certain.

During the first of two Class 5A-District 11 semifinals Thursday night at Seminole High, East Lake's Kristy Lagoas displayed precisely how the play can be executed to an offense's fullest advantage.

The No. 2 Eagles were taking on No. 3 Clearwater for a chance to advance into Friday night's final and Legoas' perfect cross from the left corner flag in the 11th minute helped start the scoring during East Lake's commanding 4-0 victory. Megan Kelly received the kick and promptly converted with a header.

"I take a lot of pride in my corner kicks and free kicks," Legoas said. "It's always great because we have perfect people to come jumping in for them. They always have my back."

The assist was Legoas' first point on a night when she would also add two goals. She scored about 16 minutes later after breaking free on a run initiated by Amanda Byrne's well-struck through ball. Legoas put East Lake on top 3-0 in the 36th minute with a strong kick from the right side of the goal box to the far corner.

Legoas nearly set up another converted corner when she found Byrne for a clean header, but Clearwater goalkeeper Jaime Ciociola was in place for the save.

"She's been taking the majority of our corners all year and we've been working with her on taking more shots," said East Lake assistant coach Charlie Ferro of Legoas. "She's only a sophomore and she's such an unselfish player, so we're trying to teach her to be maybe a little more selfish."

East Lake (12-4-2) scored its fourth and final goal of the night on a penalty kick taken by Byrne in the 73rd minute.

After being delayed for nearly 40 minutes because of travel difficulties for both teams, East Lake needed about 10 minutes before it began asserting itself as the better squad. Thursday was the Eagles' third win over Clearwater this season.

East Lake will take on the winner of No. 1 Seminole and Tarpon Springs. The host Warhawks (17-2-1) went undefeated in district play this season and beat East Lake 2-1 and 2-0, respectively, in the teams' meetings.

"It's been a rivalry for the past couple of years now," Lagoas said about the likely possibility of playing Seminole for a shot at the district title. "I'm a sophomore, but I know it's been going on. Hopefully we come out and play a great game tomorrow night and win the district finals because our school hasn't really had that."

The Eagles have made it to the 32-team state playoff bracket nine out of the past ten years, but have only entered as district champs once, in 2001-02.

BOX SCORE:

Clearwater - 0 - 0 --- 0
East Lake - 3 - 1 --- 4

SCORING:

East Lake

Kristy Legoas - 2 Goals, 1 Assist
Megan Kelly - 1 Goal
Amanda Byrne - 1 Goal, 1 Assist