On Monday night, the P.K. Yonge boys soccer team advanced to the Class 3A-District 4 championship game with a 2-0 win against Trinity Catholic (Ocala).
“Trinity Catholic teams may vary in skills throughout the years, but they always compensate with passion, physicality, and courage,” said P.K. Yonge coach Jose De Leon Alejandro. “Consequently, our game plan was focused on fighting and disrupting those strengths by keeping the ball moving and forcing the opposition to chase it and identifying and utilizing my team’s skilled players to exploit weaknesses in the opposing team’s defense. It did not work in the first half, but we slowly picked it up in the second half.”
Davy Coleman scored a goal at minute 43 for an early 1-0 lead and Chris Zeppieri scored a goal at minute 80 off an assist from Camron Barnett to complete the scoring.
“We also tried to exploit Trinity Catholic’s commitment to physical play by quickly transitioning from defense to offense through counterattacks, catching them off guard,” De Leon Alejandro said. “We should have been better at finding the back of the net. Throughout the season we have also been training and executing effective and productive set pieces, which helped us generate chances tonight.”
The top seed Blue Wave (18-2) will play No. 3 seed Williston, which advanced with a 9-3 win against No. 2 seed Keystone Heights (13-3-2), at 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the district championship at Williston High School.
Jamalle Wolfe opened the scoring for the Red Devils (13-6-1) off a cross from the wing from Miguel Gutierrez four minutes in.
Wolfe finished with five of their nine goals.
Miguel Gutierrez and Jace Pavao each added a pair of goals.
“The key to tonight‘s game was staying calm while defensively absorbing the pressure and turning the ball around,” said Williston coach Max Aguirre. “Equally important was moving the ball while looking for the open players and trying not to force the play. We approach every game with the motto of one play at a time, one goal at a time and one game at a time.”
In 2A-District 2, top seed Oak Hall advanced with a 4-1 win against No. 4 seed Lafayette (Mayo). The Eagles (12-0-1) will play at No. 2 seed Bell for the championship at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Bulldogs (10-3) advanced with a 5-2 win over No. 6 seed Trenton (2-16).
DISTRICT SEMIFINAL RESULTS – MONDAY, JAN. 29
BOYS
2A-District 2
1 Oak Hall 4, 4 Lafayette (Mayo) 1
2 Bell 5, 6 Trenton 2
Championship (at Bell) – Wednesday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m.
1 Oak Hall vs. 2 Bell
3A-District 4
1 P.K. Yonge 2, 5 Trinity Catholic (Ocala) 0
3 Williston 9, 2 Keystone Heights 3
Championship (at Williston) – Wednesday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m.
1 P.K. Yonge vs. 3 Williston
5A-District 2
1 Clay (Green Cove Springs) 4, Columbia (Lake City) 0
GIRLS
6A-District 4
1 Springstead (Spring Hill) 8, 4 Buchholz 0