Brooksville, Fla. – Gianna Huber (Sr) from Hernando High School took the Dunnellon Tigers soccer field firmly in her straight netting an opening day hat trick (3 goals) to firmly open her account a the start of the 2019-20 girls high school soccer season. Emma Naughton, bagged a brace and Bricyn Wylie, Ava Phillip and Bailey Burdin all contributed with a goal a piece as David Shrader’s Hernando Leopards ran out 8-0 winners. They followed this up on Wednesday night with a hard fought 1-1 tie at local rival Weeki Wachee Hornets. Unfortunately for the Leopards it was the Sharks who were the visitors for the opening home game of the season. Nature Coast came into the game fully prepared and with 2 goals a piece from Kennedy Weismann, Mia DeRonda and Kirsten Lavalle the visiting Sharks snapped the Leopards 7-0. This left the Leopards with a 1-1-1 opening week. Meanwhile the Sharks moved to 2-0 as they also skipped past Citrus courtesy of a 4-0 victory in their home opener.
Springstead without a pre-season warm up game in the books, started the season at home to Crystal River – The Pirates took the game to the Eagles, but strength prevailed as 2 goals each from freshman Gia DeRonda and Hailey Hunt (Sr) took care of any Pirate resistance. The final score was 5-2 for the Eagles.
The Eagles and Hornets then battled out a 0-0 draw before getting ready to enter week two of the season.
Elsewhere in Hernando County Girls Soccer, Central played at home against an extremely strong Lecanto team, led by Kevin Towne. Towne’s team came to play and following a 8-0 win left Bears stadium happy and victorious.
Central Bears boys soccer team, came up against two much stronger out of county opponents as they travelled to Lecanto. Being 4-0 down by half time did not help the cause. However a much improved second half saw them get the ball in the back of the net before ultimately going down 6-1. Their home opener saw Regional Quarter Finalists of 2018-19 come to town. Joshua McKenna led the charge as the 611 nationally ranked Citrus team ran out comfortable 8-0 victors.
Hernando High School, behind their new coach, saw them falter at the first hurdle as it was Land O’Lakes who firmly took the game to last season’s district semi final Leopards. The visiting Gators firmly coming away with a 9-1 victory, with Jacob Kelly the lone scorer for the Leopards. Wednesday night didn’t see things get much better for the Leopards. Their coach was absent from the sideline and the team suffered a 8-1 loss at the hands of county rival Weeki Wachee. On the road to Nature Coast Tech in a replay of the 2018-19 District Semi final and with the game tied at 1-1 many saw a revitalized Leopards enter the Shark Tank. However it wasn’t to be as Nature Coast put 5 in the net in quick succession to end the game 6-1 victors and leave the Leopards winless in the opening week.
Nature Coast meanwhile moved to 2-0 behind their home opener as well as a 3-1 victory away at Citrus.
Peyton Burns started life at Springstead with back to back tied games as they kept Pasco to a 1-1 tie before leaving Crystal River with the same scoreline. Weeki Wachee, however, denied them any points as Seth Tarbox scored the only goal to take the Hornets to a 1-0 victory and leave them with 2 wins at the start of the season.
Week two of the soccer season sees Hernando Christian Academy get off the ground with away games at both Pepin Academy and Cambridge Christian before a home opener against Academy at the Lakes.
Hernando Leopards meanwhile travel to an extremely strong Citrus team before facing Fivay at home. They end the week on the road again at Springstead. Meanwhile the Eagles have a quiet week facing the aforementioned Leopards and a home encounter against Nature Coast.
I’ll be reporting from the girls soccer game between Springstead Eagles and Citrus. Will Sarah Bell be able to take her 1-0-1 undefeated team on the road and come back with her second win of the season?
