BROOKSVILLE- Now that winter sports have begun, soccer teams take the field and a couple of Hernando County’s boys’ soccer teams are impressing early on.
Nature Coast and Weeki Wachee are the county’s two teams that have stood out so far and both are ranked within the top 10 in the state in Class 4A according to MaxPreps.com. The Hornets are currently No. 7 in the state for Class 4A and the Sharks sit at No. 8, respectively. Weeki Wachee, now six games through, is at 6-0 and Nature Coast is 8-1 after nine contests.
Weeki Wachee (6-0) has only yielded two goals all season long and has scored 31 times. Three straight 8-0 victories over Springstead, Hernando, and Central before the Hornets had more difficult wins over Inverness Citrus twice and Lecanto. The highly anticipated matchup everyone would like to see in Hernando County takes place on January 8th when Weeki Wachee and Nature Coast meet for the first time this season.
The Hornets have several players that are having stellar seasons to date, as senior Jacob Kelly has scored 14 goals through six games. Weeki Wachee’s other high scorer is senior Seth Tarbox, who has scored seven goals so far. Tarbox is also the team’s leader in assists, with 12. The team is somewhat young as well, with three freshmen on the roster.
Nature Coast (8-1) has been just about as dominant as their counterparts over at Weeki Wachee, with the Sharks scoring 45 goals and only giving up nine. A strong score spree to start the season also took place for Nature Coast, as they kicked off the 2020-2021 campaign with blowout wins over Lecanto and Bushnell South Sumter. The Sharks’ lone loss on the season came to St. Petersburg Lakewood 2-1. Other than that one blemish, Nature Coast has been solid.
It’s been a pretty well-balanced scoring attack across the board for Nature Coast and leading all scorers is junior Thomas DiFrank. DiFrank has scored 12 goals and senior Drew Kelly is scored on the team with eight. Kelly also is the team leader in assists with 12. Nature Coast is very young when it comes to goalkeeping, as freshman Cole Pretorius and sophomore Kaden LaRocca both have combined for 21 saves this season.
Andy Villamarzo can be reached at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @avillamarzo.
