Peters Scores Two Goals; Sebring Blanks Clewiston

SEBRING - The Sebring boys soccer team made sure their last regular-season home match was one to remember.

Senior forward Nicholas Peters scored two goals and Austin Brady led a suffocating defense, as the Blue Streaks shut out Clewiston 4-0 on Monday night at Firemen's Field.

After back-to-back poor performances last week, Peters jump-started the Sebring offense, and led an attack that peppered Tiger goalie Jose Jaimez with 16 shots.

"The last couple of matches, we didn't play up to our potential and we needed to step it up," Peters said. "We came out focused, kept the pressure on and played the ground balls real well tonight.
"We needed to get our confidence up and this kind of win should do that."

The win improved the Class 4A Blue Streaks to 12-5-3 overall.

"That was a much better effort after a couple of sluggish starts after the Christmas break," said Sebring coach Paul Brown. "We played real well the first half with plenty of pace and good ball movement and Nick scored two great goals.

"It was a good win, and I was able to get all the guys in to play. We just need to come out with the same kind of effort the rest of the season."

Sebring controlled the action from the opening whistle, and Peters scored the first goal with a rocket into the upper-left corner from 15 yards out for a 1-0 lead in the 24th minute.

The Blue Streaks kept the offensive pressure on and Peters was in the right place at the right time, as he ripped a rebound of his own shot into the lower-left corner for a 2-0 lead with 14:03 remaining in the first half.

"I was fortunate the ball bounced back at me because I really needed some more goals," said Peters, who has 13 goals on the season. "I'm competing with one of my buddies in Kissimmee to see who scores the most goals, and I'm a couple behind."

Any thoughts of Class 3A Clewiston - which dropped to 9-5-4 - mounting a comeback were quickly dispelled as Sebring's Bradley Molinaro scored on a header off a corner kick by Buck Schroeder in the 45th minute.

With the big lead, the Blue Streaks substituted liberally to get all the players some time on the field.
Clewiston, which had only five shots on goal, never really threatened to break through the swarming Blue Streak defense or goalie Elic Kirby.

"It's a lot of fun to shut out a team," said Brady. "We needed to come back strong after a couple of bad outings.

"This win is important because it gives us a lot of confidence heading into the district tournament next week."

Sophomore Troy Talbert capped the scoring in the final minutes with a rebound shot that skipped past Jaimez.

Sebring wraps up its regular season with an away match against LaBelle on Friday.
The Blue Streaks, who are the No. 2 seed, host the Class 4A-District 10 tournament beginning Monday at Firemen's Field.

"We have the home-field advantage and if we can play like we did in the first half tonight, we'll be fine," said Brown. "We have the talent to win the district championship, the players just have to believe in themselves."