Prep action galore
Tonight is a high school winter sports fan’s dream, whether it be soccer or basketball. The schedule is chock full of opportunities and many of the games are right here in town.
Fresh off Tuesday night’s 4-2 victory at Ida Baker, the Cape Coral Seahawks storm right back into District 3A-13 boy’s soccer action tonight against Island Coast. Baker travels to Lemon Bay while Mariner invades North Fort Myers.
Girls’ games mirror the boys matchups with North visiting Mariner, Lemon Bay at Baker and Island Coast at Cape Coral at 6 p.m. prior to the boys’ 7:30 start. Additionally, Oasis hosts First Baptist of Naples.
On the hardwood basketball floors, city rivals Cape Coral and Mariner boys square off in the first of their traditional home-and-home series tonight at Mariner. Elsewhere, Island Coast hosts Venice, North Fort Myers travels to Port Charlotte and Bishop Verot visits Lely.
Among the girls, Baker journeys to St. John Neumann, Island Coast heads to Venice and North Fort Myers hosts Port Charlotte.
Junior Jonathan Jimenez has been a scoring machine on the pitch for the Seahawks (7-1-1). He has scored five goals in just four games with three assists. Gianni Cognata leads the Seahawks in scoring with six goals and three assists.
Boys Soccer
Mariner 2, Estero 1: Trevor Jurkowski scored both of his goals in the second half Wednesday night to lead Mariner to a 2-1 victory at Estero.
The Wildcats scored a meaningless goal in the final minutes while Tritons goalkeeper Alex Collazo made three saves to preserve the shutout.
” We got a solid game from midfielder Tom Diller tonight as well as good defense by Austen Hopson and Austin Turner,” said Tritons coach Martin Cardenas.
The Tritons (6-1-1) visit North Fort Myers Friday.
Bishop Verot 3, Gulf Coast 2: Kevin Reynolds scored two own goals against Gulf Coast Wednesday night to lift Bishop Verot to victory.
Goalkeeper Ricardo Martinez made 10 saves on the night to preserve the victory. The Vikings (7-1-1) visited Dunbar Thursday night.
Boys Basketball
Charlotte 74, Island Coast 57: A significant disparity at the free throw line went against Island Coast Wednesday night in a 17-point loss at Charlotte.
“They shot 33 free throws to our eight,” said Gators coach Greg Coleman. “It seems we can’t play defense without fouling. We just can’t send a team to the line for 33 free throws and hope to win.”
The Tarpons converted 21 of those free throws in the 17-point decision.
Matt Jeannelas topped the Gators with 20 points and seven rebounds while Sam Merchant added 15 points and three steals.
Island Coast trailed 21-15 at the end of one quarter and still trailed by 12 at the half. The Gators managed to cut the deficit to eight near the end of three periods, but the free throw advantage was too much to overcome.
The Gators (3-2) host Venice on Friday.
Girls Soccer
Estero 1, Mariner 0: Estero accounted for the only goal of the game to shut down Mariner Wednesday night.
The Tritons (6-2-2) host once-beaten North Fort Myers (9-1) Friday night at Tony McKenna Field.