‘Cats Tame Lions Again
SHADY HILLS –
A year ago on this same pitch at Shady Hills-Bishop McLaughlin Catholic, Land O’ Lakes-Academy at the Lakes turned the table on Hernando Christian Academy.
The Wildcats had lost three times to the Lions during the regular season, yet pulled out a huge victory in the fourth meeting, dropping HCA in the semifinal of the Class 2A, District 9 Tournament.
This season, the situation had reversed. This time the Lions had dropped one regular-season contest and tied two others versus Academy at the Lakes heading into Tuesday’s 2A-9 semifinal at Bishop McLaughlin.
However, on this occasion the regular-season results did foretell the final outcome. The Wildcats scored twice in the second half to notch a 2-0 victory, earning a regional berth and a spot in the title game.
“I’m proud of them,” HCA Head Coach Matt Carrao said of his players. “The first half was good. The second half we ran out of steam.
“Give all the credit to them. Academy at the Lakes is a great team. They had our number this year.”
Romeo injured
HCA (5-9-4) suffered a key injury midway through the first half when an Academy at the Lakes (6-3-2) player collided with goalkeeper Josh Romeo while pursuing a ball outside of the goal box.
With no creditable back-up, Romeo toughed out the rest of the match. The senior essentially played with one arm after appearing to injure his left shoulder. He had four saves on the night.
“The kid was courageous,” Academy at the Lakes Head Coach Don Bellefeuille said. “I think he did a heck of a job. He couldn’t lift his left arm. I wanted to take advantage of it but we never really did.”
Both Wildcat goals, as Carrao pointed out, came in one-on-one situations and Romeo’s injury likely didn’t play a factor.
Five minutes into the second half, Dan Pitcarin got out in front of the defense off a pass by Trace Waters and tallied the game’s first score.
Roughly 15 minutes later, Michael Setteducato pounced on a ball that got by Romeo and kicked it to Kartik Mehta, who put it inside the open net.
“There are certain things you work on through the year and we stopped doing it,” Bellefeuille said. “So I had to remind them of some of the fundamentals. I told them if we get back to the fundamentals of the game, we’ll get one goal within five minutes and two within 10.”
The Lions’ leading scorer, senior Jeff Basciano, had the team’s best two scoring chances, both in the second half and both times thwarted by a great diving save by Jason Pitcarin.
“I thought we outplayed them in the first half,” Carrao said. “The sweeper in the back (Dan Pitcarin), he came to play. I think he was the difference today.
“…Obviously it was a learning season and a humbling season a little bit, but hopefully a growing season. For what we played on the field and the talent we had, I think we overachieved. Next year we’ll add some complimentary players to that and go from there.”
ACADEMY AT THE LAKES 2, HCA 0
HCA 0 0 – 0
AATL 0 2 – 2
Goals – AATL: D. Pitcarin, Mehta.
Assists – AATL: Waters, Setteducato.
Shots on goal – HCA: 5, AATL: 7.
Saves – HCA: Romeo 4; AATL: J. Pitcarin 5.
Yellow Cards – Marra (HCA), D. Pitcarin, Garrison (AATL).
Blue Cards – none.
Red Cards – none.
Records: Hernando Christian (5-9-4), Academy at the Lakes (6-3-2).
Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at 352-544-5288 or [email protected].
