Home Sweet Home

SEBRING - After playing their best soccer on the road, the Sebring boys team finally broke through to earn their first home win of the season with a 3-2 decision over Braden River on Thursday night at Firemen's Field.

"Finally, a home win," said junior Jazan Jimenez. "We were doing fine on the road ,but we couldn't win at home.

"Now that we've got that first win out of the way, we've got to make sure we don't lose at home for the rest of the season."

The Class 4A-District 10 victory improved the Blue Streaks to 5-4-2, 2-1-1, and came after Sebring had blown a two-goal lead late in the second half.

"We made it hard on ourselves," said Blue Streak coach Paul Brown. "We had a nice, comfortable two-goal lead and then lost our concentration and allowed two silly goals on individual mistakes.We've talked about not making errors, but at least we were able to overcome them and get the win.

"The boys wanted this one badly, and I'm proud of their effort."

The loss dropped the Pirates to 2-5-1, 2-2.

"It was a good match," Braden River coach Braden Chandler said. "Sebring played well and deserved to win, but I like the way we fought back and we're looking forward to the rematch at our place."

Sebring, which dictated the pace of play for most of the match, took the lead when sophomore forward Buck Schroeder gathered in a rebound in front of the Braden River goal and blasted it past Pirate keeper Jeff Hyle in the 15th minute.

"I was just happy to get the ball in the goal because their keeper was pretty quick and made a lot of great saves tonight," said Schroeder. "That's my second goal of the season, and it's the greatest feeling in the world when you score."

The Blue Streaks, which outplayed Braden River offensively all night, had 13 shots on goal, but couldn't put the ball in the net and took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

"We should have been up three or four goals at the half," Brown said. "We had several good chances, but couldn't finish and it almost came back to bite us."

Senior forward Nick Peters gave the Blue Streaks some breathing room when he took a throw-in, eluded his defender and then ripped a shot into the upper right-corner for a 2-0 lead with in the 41st minute.

Braden River refused to fold and struck back quickly when Andrew Quijano corralled a through ball and slipped a shot past Sebring keeper Ryan Cochran with 27 minutes left.

Quijano evened the match with another goal with just 15 minutes remaining when Sebring failed to clear a loose ball in front of its goal.

Peters refused to let the Blue Streaks let this one slip away as he broke free with a run down the right side and forced the goalie to come out to defend.

With Hyle out of position, Peters deftly passed to Gilberto Santos, who calmly booted the ball into the open net for the game-winning goal in the 69th minute.

"That was a nice play by Nick," Brown said. "We deserved that one after letting those other chances slip away."

The home win gives the Blue Streaks confidence for the remainder of the season.

"This win is what we needed," Jimenez said. "Now it's time to keep winning and dominate people."

Sebring is back in action with a non-district home match against Lake Placid on Monday night.