Baker's Dozen

WESLEY CHAPEL - There are times when a score of a certain game does not really indicate how well or how badly the losing team played.

A classic example was Tuesday night in the Class 4A, District 8 Tournament at Wiregrass Ranch when Pasco blanked Nature Coast Technical, 4-0.

With Pasco County's leading scorer Jose Montelongo collecting two goals, the No. 1 seeded Pirates eliminated No. 8 seed NCT.

"We didn't play badly at all, we just gave them way too many free kicks and they took advantage of them," said NCT assistant coach Tom Brown following the loss Tuesday.

Montelongo leads by example

Montelongo, a senior who led the area with 41 goals in the regular season, scored twice for the 19-4-2 Pirates in the quarterfinal win.

NCT, who had beaten county rival Hernando in a first-round play-in match, 4-0, was called for 22 fouls in the match that gave Pasco a number of open chances to score.

Montelongo and Polvin Sumner scored goals for Pasco in the first half and then Montelongo and Jared Bennett tallied for the Pirates in the second half.

"I thought we played them fairly evenly, but you can't give a team like Pasco that many chances to score," Brown added.

Pasco out-shot the Sharks, who ended their season with a record of 5-13-2, by a margin of 23-7, while NCT was called for 22 fouls in the match compared to six for Pasco.

Sumner scored in the 16th minute of the match on an assist from Henry Hollander while Montelongo scored his first goal on a header in the 33rd minute after a free kick by Blain Sanderson.

In the second half, Montelongo got his second goal thanks to an assist from Roman Frias in the 65th minute and Jared Bennett collected the final Pasco goal in the 72nd minute on an assist by his brother Gared Bennett.

While the loss ended the Sharks' season, Brown pointed out that NCT should be able to bounce back next year, "We only lose three seniors, so next year we'll be a lot better and then we'll be able to run with teams like this next year."