Pasco continues to dominate Springstead, 4-0; Pirates pluck Eagles in the second half

SPRING HILL - In a tale of two halves, Springstead played to a scoreless draw in the first half last Thursday night in a Class 4A, District 8 soccer match at Booster Stadium.

The problem? The visiting Pirates, who entered unbeaten in the district, tallied four late goals to win comfortably, 4-0.

The defending district champion Pirates also won the first meeting at W.F. Edwards Stadium, 5-1.

More Montelongo

After setting a new Pasco County scoring record against Gulf High School the night before, Pirate senior Jose Montelongo put two more in the back of net to increase his record setting pace to 129 career goals, leading the 14-1-1 Pirates.

Springstead (7-5-5 overall, 6-2-5 4A-8) played to a scoreless tie at halftime attempting only one shot on goal and keeping three Pasco shots from finding their mark.

"We defended quite well for 68 minutes," commented Springstead's veteran Head Coach Sal Calabrese. "For 68 minutes he (Montelongo) was non-existent."

The second half began much the same way until Springstead started to get things going, putting pressure on Pasco's keeper twice, but was unable to come away with a score.

"We had two good chances in the second half to put the game away," said Coach Calabrese. "I don't know if it was the pressure, choke or inexperience, which is what I'm calling it, because there were two freshmen who had the opportunities."

Eagles: young

"We are young", said Calabrese. "In the starting lineup last night, there were four seniors and four freshmen. We don't have a go-to guy like most teams do. All 11 players are our go-to guy. We have several capable of scoring goals and we have several solid at back who can defend with my keeper."

Pasco's fifth-year mentor, Barry Grayling said. "I think the first goal was the best one. How it was executed, a free kick, I kind of mentioned look at David (Cano) and next he's playing the ball and David puts it in the back of the net. I think that was the best goal of the night."

"I know Springstead is second in the standings, so you don't underestimate them," said Grayling. "You have to put out a team that you feel can contain them, and hold them. I felt they might have had three (opportunities) go against us at one point. A couple of stops from the keeper, and then one boy managed to get in the way of a shot. It could have gone either way at that point, and finally we put one away, and I think from there, I don't know if we kinda put them off their stride or what happened, but we started playing a lot better soccer than we had in the first half."

"We played a pretty tough game the night before, at Gulf High School," added Grayling. "Then turn around the next night and play at Springstead. It kinda gets you. We've been playing three games a week since the season started. The good point is we came away with another district victory. That's what it's all about. You can't go to states or the regional playoffs, unless you get in the district finals."