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Hernando Today

No Stepping Forward

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By MARTY MILLER, Hernando Today correspondent

Published: January 16, 2008

SPRING HILL - There is an old adage that goes, 'A tie is like kissing your sister.' But Wednesday night in a key Class 4A, District 8 boys' soccer match, some folks may have felt that the Eagles' 1-1 tie with Zephyrhills may have been worse.

After getting a goal by freshman Nathan Leathers in the first half on two nice passes by Sal D'Acunto and Stephen Phillippeaux, the Eagles settled for a tie.

In the 70th minute, the Bulldogs Chris First had the ball about 30 yards from the Springstead net and he was unmarked.

First took the opportunity and rocketed a shot past Eagle goalie Joey LaSala to tie the score at 1-all.

Then in injury time at the end of the second half, the Eagles almost pulled the game out when Leathers headed a ball past Bulldog goalie Rafael Rodriguez. But the linesman ruled the play offside thus nullifying the goal.

The game was the third meeting between the two teams and each one has resulted in a different ending. Early in the year, Springstead beat the Bulldogs 2-1 on a late second-half penalty kick and two weeks ago, the Bulldogs beat Springstead 4-2 in a shootout win at the Ridgewood Winter Soccer Classic.

And now if the Bulldogs are able to beat Sunlake this week, in all likelihood, the two teams will face each other for a fourth time in the district playoffs.

Springstead opened the scoring with what may have been the nicest goal it had scored this year.

D'Acunto took the ball over at midfield and hit Phillippeaux on the left wing with a perfect pass.

He then went down the wing toward the touch-line before crossing the ball to a wide-open Leathers, who easily beat the Bulldog goalie.

But Zephyrhills had its chances in the first half.

Five minutes after the Springstead goal, A. J. Wright headed a ball off the cross bar at the 31-minute mark.

In the end, neither team could add to its total as Rodriguez had to make just two saves in the game while LaSala made six.

Springstead had an opportunity late in the game when Bulldog midfielder Jeff Wilcox picked up his second yellow card and was ejected from the game with 7:40 left on the clock, which helped the Eagles get their final chance for a goal on Leathers header which was called offside.

The loss dropped Springstead's record to 7-8-6 and 3-5-6 in 4A-8 with the district tournament now less than two weeks away.

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