Bouncing Back

SPRING HILL - When for the fourth time in a five-year stretch, the Boston Celtics had beaten the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals, a member of the Lakers was asked how he felt. The player came up with the best line imaginable when he said, "We've got buzzard's luck, can't kill nothing and nothing will die."

That is exactly how Crystal River girls soccer Head Coach Bill Reyes might have felt after his team was shutout by Springstead (15-2-4 overall) at Booster Stadium, 4-0.

Friday night served as both teams' final regular season match.

Along with having Jamie Born, a member of the junior varsity team, air-lifted to a hospital in Tampa due to a possible fractured skull, and the Pirates' starting goalie, Brittany Dehoff, was sent to the hospital with back spasms. CRHS improvised with two untested goalies.

Eagle sophomore Cristina Passafaro notched two goals while freshman Alyson Brady added another while CRHS hurt itself with an own goal.

Friday night was an easy win for the Eagles on their Senior Night, which had Coach Polo Furlong miss his second game because he was attending his brother's wedding in the Dominican Republic.

Pirates: long night

But Furlong really didn't miss much as the Pirates ran into all sorts of trouble just keeping their players healthy.

When Born was hurt, the junior varsity game was called off with 20 minutes left in the first half. But that was only the beginning of the Pirates' problems.

At the same time Born was hurt, starting goalie Dehoff was being taken by ambulance to the hospital with back spasms, leaving Crystal River with no goalie with any experience.

"We weren't mentally prepared to lose both goalies," said Reyes after the match. "When we lost our first goalie, our second one had never been a goalie at all and then our third one hadn't been in the nets since she was 14."

That lack of experience hurt Crystal River as Passafaro and Brady both scored goals in the first half that Becca Reynolds originally stopped, but let the ball get behind her and into the net.

Then in the second half, Springstead got another goal when Pirate defender Alyssa Ruane deflected a shot into her own goal.

For DeFrancesco, the shutout was her 15th of the season and her 28th of her career, one behind the Springstead High record of 29 set by Julie Taylor, who graduated in 1994.