No winner: Lions, Crusaders settle on 1-1 draw

BROOKSVILLE - Playing at home with no lights, a 4 p.m. start to a soccer game is a must. Typically, this would keep the cold weather away, but not Monday.

Temperatures dipped into the 40s as St. Petersburg's Keswick Christian and Hernando Christian Academy played to a 1-1 draw.

Keswick (2-8-1 overall) dominated the first half and scored its first and only goal at 30 minutes when John Kistemaker sent a pass over the defensive line and found midfielder Trevor Angell in the middle for the easy shot.

Not that they didn't try to score many times.

The Crusaders had a total of 10 shots at goal in the first half.

HCA's keeper Joe Harrell had five saves in the first half alone and defenseman Kyle Marra had two saves in the match as Harrell came out of goal once in each half on breakaways that were shut down.

Keswick came out in the second half firing on net another 10 times, but couldn't convert.

Hernando Christian (6-2-3 overall) had only two shots on goalie Nolan Sadorf (125 saves this season), who shut the Lions out in the first half.

Crusader Ethan Engelhardt took over in net for the second half when in the 59th minute, Sean Byrne found Kevin Herbert on the left wing.

The Lions gained possession at midfield and put together four passes, their best play on the day, starting with midfielder Jeffrey Basciano, who hit Byrne on the way into Keswick's defense.

Byrne passed the ball to Cody Gillis, and Gillis quickly passed back to Byrne, who found Herbert streaking down the left side before etching the tying goal.

"I got the ball and left-footed it toward the bottom left," said Herbert. "It bounced off the post and I got the rebound and put it in."