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Blue Streaks Tame Tigers

Mark Pinson/Highlands Today

Sebring’s Buck Schroeder battles for the ball with Palmetto’s Andrew Lersch during the first half of Thursday night’s Class 4A-District 10 match at Firemen’s Field.

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By Mark  Pinson | Highlands Today

Published: December 22, 2007

SEBRING –– After starting the season off struggling to score goals, the Sebring boys soccer team has turned into a veritable scoring machine.

The Blue Streaks continued their outstanding recent play on Thursday night, as senior Daniel Grimaldo scored two goals and Nick Peters and Gilberto Santos added a goal to spark a 4-1 win over Palmetto in a key Class 4A-District 10 match at Firemen's Field.

"This is one of the best feelings I've had all season," said an elated Grimaldo. "We've come so far and we're a different team from the beginning of the year.

"Our defense is anticipating passes and playing great, and our offense is on fire."

Sebring, which is unbeaten in its last 10 matches, improved to 10-4-2 overall and 6-1-1, while the Tigers suffered their first district loss and dropped to 10-2-1, 7-1-1.

"This is a big win because it ties us with Palmetto for first place in the district," Peters said. "It's extra special because they beat us in the district finals last year and we tied with them at their place earlier this season.

"It was a physical match with a few yellow cards, but we kept our composure and were the better team tonight."

The match didn't start out on a good note for Sebring, as Palmetto's Edgar Campos controlled a corner kick in front of the goal and blasted a shot past Blue Streak junior keeper Ryan Cochran for a quick 1-0 lead just three minutes into the contest.

Sebring had several excellent scoring chances go by the board, including a penalty kick by Austin Brady that sailed wide-right 26 minutes into the first half.

Two other scoring opportunities hit the crossbar and bounced away as the Blue Streaks, who had 15 shots on goal, continued to dominate play.

With under two minutes remaining in the half, a Palmetto defender was called for a hand ball in the penalty box.

Grimaldo calmly drilled the penalty kick into the lower left corner past Tiger keeper Brandon Tarpley to tie the match at 1 at the half.

"I was beginning to wonder if it was going to be our night," said Sebring coach Paul Brown. "We missed the penalty kick and hit the post a couple of times, but we stuck with it, and the goal just before the half gave us a huge lift."

The Blue Streaks came out aggressive to open the second half and stunned the Tigers when Gilberto Santos gathered in a corner kick by Peters and ripped a shot into the upper left corner for a 2-1 lead.

Peters then broke loose on a throw-in down the right sideline and rocketed a shot past Tarpley to put Sebring up 3-1 with 20:07 remaining to play.

"We really wanted to beat Palmetto," Peters said. "We came out in the second half and took control and you could tell we wanted this more than they did."

Grimaldo capped the rout with a beautiful goal on a header off a rebound of his own shot with under two minutes remaining to seal the win.

"We seem to start off slowly every game, but we didn't get down and we pressured them the rest of the way," Grimaldo said. "Hats off to Palmetto because they're a good team, but we know we can play with them and we just have to stay focused."

The effort and intensity displayed by the Blue Streaks was something Brown was glad to see.

"This was the best 80 minutes we've played this season," the veteran Sebring coach said. "We picked ourselves up after giving up that early goal and we played well against a very talented club.

"We went to the ball, dominated midfield and were the better team tonight, and I hope we don't lose our fire over the Christmas break."

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