Ranch falls in district finals

LAKEWOOD RANCH — The Lakewood Ranch boys soccer team had high hopes of becoming the district champions before their run in regionals, but their district dreams were shot after the Palmetto Tigers took the title with a 4-1 upset in the Class 4A-District 10 championship Jan. 28.

After a scoreless first half, the Palmetto Tigers kicked their playing game up a few notches. Less than six minutes into the second half, Palmetto senior Brandon Waddy scored a free kick for the first score of the game to begin an explosive half. Less than three minutes later, Lakewood Ranch’s star defensive midfielder Marco Padilla knocked a 12-yard penalty into the net to tie the game 1-1 and to score the Mustangs only goal of the game.

“We worried a little bit too much about the referees,” Mustang coach Vito Bavaro said. “We let the referees get into our head. We were worried too much about what was going on with the calls and trying to do a lot of things instead of just playing the game.

“When you lose you focus like that and then you get down a goal then you get down two goals, it’s tough to get back going,” he said. “We just lost our focus.”

Palmetto freshman Gregorio Cavillo took control of his Tiger team with a header to put Palmetto up 2-1 with 26:41 left in the half. With just more than seven minutes to play, Cavillo struck again, extending the Tigers lead 3-1.

However, Cavillo’s back-to-back goals weren’t the final scoring points for Palmetto. With 2:33 left, junior Carlos Vasquez made the final goal of the game with a final score of 4-1 and a district championship for Palmetto.

“We played good but not good enough,” Lakewood senior Seth Browning said. “We didn’t play as hard as they did. They wanted it more in the end.”

Palmetto was originally the sixth seed in the district, which meant they had to beat the top three teams to earn the title.

“Things didn’t go our way,” Bavaro said. “Palmetto is a good team. The game could’ve gone either way, but the bottom line is when we get opportunities, we have to finish. We didn’t; they did.

“For us right now we’re taking two steps backwards, but there’s no reason we can’t take four steps forward,” he said. “I think we’re a good enough team to take this and learn from it and go forward on it.”

Lakewood Ranch will visit Tampa Jesuit tonight, while Palmetto hosts Lutz Steinbrenner in the regional quarterfinals.

Bavaro said despite last week’s loss, he and his Mustang squad still hold high expectations for regionals.
“We’re going to do the same thing we’ve done all year,” he said. “We’ve had a great season — 18-3-4. We’ve been working the ball. We work hard in practice. We work on the little things that make us better, and we’re going to keep doing that. … We’re not going to change anything we did because of this game.

“I think our game plan is solid (and) our rotation is solid,” Bavaro said.