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Tigers Ice Streaks In 2OT

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Sebring's Daniel Klatt dives for the header in front of Palmetto's Jose Martinez during the Class 4A-District 10 tournament semifinals on Wednesday.

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By CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: January 30, 2009

PALMETTO - After battling into overtime earlier in the week, the Sebring boys soccer team couldn't help but feel confident about facing another bit of extra play on Wednesday against Palmetto in the Class 4A-District 10 semifinal at Harllee Stadium.

"I hope we can duplicate the overtime magic we had against Booker on Monday," said SHS skipper Tim Boulay.

The Streaks nearly did after fighting to a 1-1 tie in regulation, but Robert Stevenson's goal with 4:41 left in the second overtime gave the Pirates a 2-1 win over the defending-district-champion Streaks.

Tears of a season ended streamed down the faces of the Sebring players and the seniors had even more reason for the emotion as they finished their final match as Blue Streaks.

"We played our hearts out tonight and I'm proud of everyone on this team," said senior Daniel Klatt, who fought to hold his emotions in check. "We had to fight through injuries this season, and it's hard when you know it's all come to an end."

Palmetto head coach Dustin Dahlquist gained a healthy dose of respect for the Streaks, whom his team hadn't faced since Nov. 14.

"Sebring came to play tonight," said Dahlquist. "They didn't give us anything out there and we were forced to make some adjustments to try and get some scoring chances."

Streaks goalie Ryan Cochran didn't feel that the Tigers were lacking in their scoring chances, as he was blasted from every angle and came up huge for Sebring nearly every time.

"After Palmetto got their first goal, we never wavered," Cochran said. "We were able to get that goal back and our confidence level really soared.

"Palmetto really hit me with so many shots in the overtime periods that they finally had one go in."

Despite the loss, Sebring's defense was worthy enough to take a bow after the performance they put on against the top team in the district: Palmetto's Will Hauser scored just 90 seconds into the game off the right side against Cochran and nobody knew if this was the beginning of another rout, but the Streaks buckled down on defense to limit the Tigers' penetration into Sebring territory goal.

Sebring junior Buck Schroeder got his 19th goal of the season after faking Palmetto goalie Frank Loeva and putting the ball into an empty net to tie the game.

That goal seemed to energize Sebring, who played with much more aggressiveness from then on.

"We started pressuring their forwards more and that helped keep the pressure off of Ryan," Klatt said.

Palmetto had a shot to end the game in regulation, but a direct kick 20 yards from the Sebring goal by Eliud Saucedo went wide and the game went into overtime, which saw both teams jostle for position on the field and the sheer physicality of the game seemed to intensify.

Senior Jazan Jimenez received his second yellow card on a questionable call minutes into the first overtime that put him on the bench. That was the first time Jimenez had ever been ejected from a game in his soccer career.

"I've never been thrown out in all the years I've been playing soccer," said Jimenez. "From youth soccer up until now, it has never happened until my final game."

The scheduling gurus at the Florida High School Athletic Association reworked the games so that every district match-up was played within days of each other, which means that the last time the two teams met was during the second week of the season.

"So much has changed on our team that you can't take much away from those early games," said Boulay. "But I felt like our team played their best game all year tonight. Some people said that we should've played like this all season, but sometimes it takes games like this to bring the team together."

As Cochran and the rest of the team walked off the field, Boulay looked at his senior goalie and gave the biggest compliment a player could get.

"Those are some big shoes that we need to fill next year," said Boulay. "Players like Ryan don't come along every year."

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5837 or choffman@highlandstoday.com.

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