Gators Stun Mustangs In 8-0 Win

TRINITY - Prep soccer fans who may have been stuck in the traffic jam on East Lake Road on Wednesday night heading to the Land O' Lakes-Mitchell boys soccer match might have been annoyed by the delay, but they were certainly more annoyed when they found out their efforts were virtually wasted. Those who showed up a little late essentially missed the 8-0 Land O' Lakes victory.

In what seemed like a few blinks of an eye, Land O' Lakes took a 4-0 lead, and that quickly turned into a 7-0 rout for the Gators, who nearly put the game away on a mercy rule in the first half.

The mercy-rule finish would have to wait for the second half. Elliott Leniton got behind Mitchell goalkeeper Robbie Wallace and scored the eighth goal, his second of the evening, from the front of the net in the 15th minute of the second half.

The only thing Leniton had to worry about with his match-ending goal was not losing control of his dribble.

The goals came in spurts for the Gators.

Felix Soto jump-started the Gators with two goals in the span of a minute to give Land O' Lakes a 2-0 lead with just more than 27 minutes left in the first half.

Nearly 10 minutes later, the Gators went on another scoring spree, with three goals in four minutes for a 5-0 lead.

A penalty kick by Matthew Tanner and Dominic Cutrofello's third goal of the night in the 33rd minute put the match out of reach.

Land O' Lakes had its chances to end the game in the first half but had two near-misses. The win by Land O' Lakes all but locked up a Sunshine Athletic Conference title.

Mitchell coach Oscar Ubillus seemed shell-shocked after the match.

"They just killed us. They killed us with their speed at the top," Ubillus said. "They were a lot faster than us. We didn't have the speed to keep up. Their passes were on and in the right spot. And they hit their goals. They definitely got the momentum, but it was not just that. They outplayed us.

"We came out pumped up and not flat. We played well for the first 10 minutes. Then all of a sudden, boom, boom, boom, boom."

The offensive outburst even caught the Gators by surprise.

"I was not thinking it would snowball like that," Gators keeper Alex Spock said. "I was thinking after the first goal or two we'd win by two at the most. I never thought it would be 8-0."

"Everybody did their job," Cutrofello said in explaining the offensive bursts. "We haven't played this well in a while. We just had to play ball on the floor: quick passes, one-two touches. We knew we had to keep playing and they wouldn't just give up.

"When we were up 7-0, we just had to finish it out."