Girls soccer: River Ridge, Gulf battle to tie

NEW PORT RICHEY - It didn't dissappoint.

In the highly anticpated match between crosstown rivals River Ridge and Gulf, a back-and-forth game went down to the wire. Two of the top girls teams in Pasco County played to a 2-2 draw Friday night at Des Little Stadium.

"That," Buccaneers coach Shari Schau said, "was one heck of a game.

"From both sides, we both played well," Schau added. "We had the better first half, but they definitely had the better second. We didn't want to lose control, but we did, but were able to hang on for the tie, and we'll always take that against River Ridge."

Just a minute into the game, Gulf's top scorer, senior Chelsea Foster, scored the first of two goals, giving the Buccaneers (16-1-1) a quick lead.

Foster added her second in the 33rd minute for a 2-0 lead going into the half, her team-high 17th goal of the season.

"They sat there at halfime and said we could get this back," Royal Knights coach Skip Glover said. "They had the confidence coming back on the field, and we made a heck of comeback."

River Ridge (18-2-2) sure did. Just a minute into the second, senior Jenny Karl picked up her county-best 37th goal of the season after cleaning up Jessica Tata's shot that hit the left goal post.

The rest of the half saw numerous yellow cards and banged-up players on both sides. The Royal Knights finally tied the game in the 75th mintue. Karl got a breakaway, then sent a cross to back-up forward Taylor Antioco, who buried the game-tying goal.

"I think that after 22 regular season games, we're tired," Glover said. "I also think we learned a lot about ourselves, and about them, but we didn't play poorly," Glover said. "We just didn't capitalize on every opportunity like we could, and should have."

The match could have been a preview to either a regional quarter- or semifinal in two weeks, but first the Royal Knights will have to defend their five-straight 4A-8 district titles. Luckily, they won't have to rely on four bench players and extended playing time for the back-up keeper after starter Lisa Jadick got banged up stopping 16 Gulf shots.

"Districts probably couldn't come soon enough," Glover added.

As for Gulf, which is in the midst of its best season in the history of the program, it'll head into districts looking for a rematch with the only team to beat the Buccaneers this season: other crosstown rival and district foe, Mitchell.

"We couldn't have been happier to schedule River Ridge at the end of the season, let alone the last game of the season," Schau said. "It's a great tune up going into districts, which is, of course, what we need.

"This game encourages us going into districts because River Ridge is a quality team so to even pull the tie out. A win would've been great, but a tie is just tremendous.

"We've been looking at (the possibility) that we can see them again. We couldn't have asked, though, for a better preview."