by Jonathan Stone
SPECIAL TO THE HERNANDO SUN
The week got off to a blistering start for Kris Brooks and the Central High School Bears boys soccer team. They faced off against the travelling Anclote Sharks arriving on Ken Austin Parkway on Monday evening. The Bears, came away 5-3 victors and started the week on the right foot. Sadly this wasn’t to continue as they faced off against old foes Trinity Catholic on Wednesday night. Trinity toppled the Bears 8-3.
This coming week Central travels across town to face off against the Hernando Leopards. The Leopards will be hosting Senior Night in the last encounter before the Christmas break. JV game kicks off at 6pm followed by presentation of the Seniors and then the Varsity matchup follows on shortly afterwards.
Hernando Christian Academy were unable to get on the score-sheet as they traveled to Tampa and faced off against Bayshore Christian High School. The Faith Warriors convincingly running out 8-0 victors to send HCA back to Brooksville scoreless.
Across to the west side of Hernando, the Hornets were unable to get on the right side of any results as they played back to back games at home against Nature Coast and Pasco. The Sharks left the tank to travel and came away with a 4-2 victory behind goals from Tony Howard (Jr) 2, Jaxsen Soto (Jr) and Thomas DiFrank (Fr). Consolation efforts from Seth Tarbox (So) 2 rounding out the scoring. Wednesday night saw Pasco (unbeaten in 2018-19 district play so far) enter the Hornets’ Nest. Sadly Pasco took the sting out of them as they powered away with a deserving 8-4 victory and no less than 5 players getting on the score-sheet. Tarbox hit another 2 and that was followed up by Aaron Jimenez (So) and also Luis Endara (Jr). Endara (pictured) is currently the Hornets top goalscorer netting 8 times in 8 appearances.
Elsewhere and the Springstead Eagles have now taken themselves on a 3-0 winning streak following victories over Zephyrhills, Hernando High School and Seven Rivers. It was Monday night when Hernando visited the Eagles and started the game brightly by going 2-0 behind goals from Jacob Kelly (So) and Andrew Bedard (Sr) – Bedard netting his first ever goal for the Leopards. However the Eagles fought themselves back into the game as refereeing decisions started to go their way and they took on a 5-2 victory. They followed that up on Tuesday night with a convincing 6-0 victory over Seven Rivers. James Campbell (Jr) and Austin Thomas (Sr) both netting hat tricks.
The Lady Leopards, coached by David Shrader, had a mixed bag this week. Starting off with a convincing 5-0 victory over Springstead. They followed that up on Wednesday with a narrow 2-1 defeat to Nature Coast in back to back home fixtures.
Weeki Wachee and Pasco fought out a nail biting 4-4 draw on Wednesday night with Pasco leading 3-2 at half time- it was the Hornets who finally found some sting in their tail to get back on level terms with Madison Adlrich (Jr) on the score-sheet. But the plaudits went to Reilley Bain (Jr) who hit a hat trick for the Hornets. On the Pirates side it was, in this case, a one woman show as Jordyn Kadlub (Sr) netted all 4 to leave the nest with a point.
The weather cancelled out virtually all of Friday nights fixtures and that means the teams go into the Christmas break with some non conference games to round out the first half of the season.
On the boys side Pasco and Nature Coast lead out the standings behind 7 victories and 1 tie. Wesley Chapel round out the top 3. Down at the bottom, win-less Zephyrhills holds up the table with Hernando in 6th and Weeki Wachee just 1 win ahead of them in 5th. Friday night’s cancelled Leopards and Hornets fixture has been rescheduled for Jan. 8 and that could well decide the end of season fate for both of those programs.
In the girls’ District Zephyrhills is currently win-less and rooted to the bottom of the table. Springstead sitting 6th and Hernando finishing out the bottom 3 in 5th place. At the top it’s Wesley Chapel as the fairy at Christmas, closely followed by Pasco and then Nature Coast.
