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PHU eliminates rival in OT

 
Published Jan. 28, 2015

PALM HARBOR — For a split second, Kayla Mouton thought she missed.

Three minutes into overtime against East Lake in Tuesday's Class 5A region semifinal, Palm Harbor University earned a corner kick. Amanda Elsey sent a low, curling kick toward the near post. Nicole Filippelli settled the ball and passed to an open Mouton 5 yards in front of the goal.

Mouton launched a shot that skimmed the upper post and found the net to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 win.

"I thought it was going over the post," Mouton said. "I was going to be so mad at myself. Nicole gave me a great pass and I thought I missed it. But then I saw it went in. I was so excited."

PHU (17-1-1) will host Newsome Friday in the region final. All three times East Lake (17-3-1) lost it was to the Hurricanes.

This was the fourth game between the schools. The previous three were also close.

The Hurricanes had four chances in the first half, but all four were snuffed out by nice saves from East Lake goalkeeper Mackenzie Nalven. One of those saves came late in the first half when Nalven cleaned up a loose ball just in front of the goal line. She had five saves in the game against eight PHU shots.

"We wanted to keep up the pressure on them, try to cause some havoc," PHU coach John Planamenta said. "We did that in the first half but their goalkeeper made some nice saves."

In second half both teams played shutdown defense and there were few shots on goal.

"East Lake is such a good team and we knew this was going to be a tough game,"' Mouton said. "This is the fourth time we've played them so we knew we had to execute well to win."

3A: Largo ousts rival

LARGO — The hex continues.

Another battle between Robinson and Largo, another overtime contest, and like last year, the Packers eked out a 2-1 victory, taking the 3A region semifinal in penalty kicks, 5-4.

The Packers travel to Merritt Island Friday for the region final.

The Knights (12-3-2) rode extended possession time and notched the first goal on senior Amanda Chromiak's netside strike of Megan Bohan's feed in the 27th minute.

Largo (18-6-1) rebounded behind Kyla Kreemer to draw level early in the second half, sent on a partial break by quality passes from freshmen Kieley Buckowski and Catrina Salazar. She also worked hard to develop three other scoring chances.

"Kyla was a trooper," Packers coach Dan Flynn said. "She came to practice with a bad case of bronchitis. She was coughing and was extra winded late in the game but I was really impressed with her effort (Tuesday)."

Senior defender Ashley Blanchard foiled Robinson's set pieces with savvy positioning and broke up three scoring runs with excellent tackling.

"Honestly, I was gassed but I wanted to get my body on the ball," Blanchard said. "Once I did, the team stepped up and got it out of there."

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And after the first PK round ended at 4-4, junior Toni Kamensky started the sudden-victory round by going top right corner for the goal. When Robinson's reply sailed over the crossbar, the celebration began.

"We've practiced PKs for the last two weeks but I didn't decide where I was shooting until it was my turn," Kamensky said.

2A: OT favors Berkeley

ST. PETERSBURG — After 80 scoreless minutes between St. Petersburg Catholic and Berkeley Prep in a 2A region semifinal, it was only fitting that the hard-fought game went to overtime.

But then Berkeley (19-8-2) wasted little time applying pressure to SPC (12-4-0) and finally breaking through. Senior Emmarose Glaser lined up a shot only to have it parried away, but the rebound ended up at sophomore Ellie Laxer's feet. She buried it into the net for the winner.

"I just nailed it as hard I could and hoped for the best," Laxer said. "I felt the adrenaline and just hit it and it went in. I'm really happy for my team."

In the first half, the Barons overpowered the visitors with several chances on goal. But each one lacked a little power or placement and ended up right in goalkeeper Valentina Estrada's grasp.

SPC's Francesca Ycaza, Julia Petrillo, and Shannon McGurk had one-on-one opportunities. Coach Sarah Trumbull knew a third encounter with a district rival was going to be a challenge.

"We had a great game and the girls gave it their all, but in the end it ultimately came down to not being to find the back of the net and it was going to be hard to beat a team three times in one year," Trumbull said.

The second half saw the Bucs settle down and play their style, keeping the ball on the ground while connecting short passes through the midfield all the way up top for the forward to chase.

SPC's Molly Dawkins came off her line to make a couple of remarkable saves to keep the game 0-0.

"All three matches we played against one another were close and definitely after the district championship we knew this was going to be another barn-burner," Bucs coach Ken Roberts said.

A: IRC strikes late

LARGO — Olivia Ross-Johnson scored the only goal with three minutes left to lift Indian Rocks Christian to a 1-0 win over Shorecrest in Class A, Region 2.

The Golden Eagles face Naples Community School on Friday.

Ross-Johnson won a 50-50 ball and quickly circled around two defenders before scoring from 25 yards. Just minutes earlier she went a little high from 20 yards.

"She was starting to get the looks and some opportunities for clean shots which I felt would happen as the game went along," Indian Rocks coach Rich Hayward said. "They were playing her man-to-man and as the game gets late I had a good feeling that she would wear the defender down and get some opportunities."

Before Ross-Johnson's goal Shorecrest had several opportunities in the first 30 minutes of the second half. Nicole Levine had a clear shot on goal with 12 minutes remaining after getting behind the Indian Rocks defense but her shot went wide.

And Demi Tellios placed a free kick from 20 yards near the corner post but Caya Sobota couldn't get the ball.

"We knew they were going to apply some pressure so we wanted to be patient and wait for the counter attacks," Hayward said. "Once it got to around the 10-minute area we started putting on the pressure."

Correspondents Chuck Frye, Justin Miller and Corey Long contributed to this report.