City rivals advance to 3A-13 soccer final
The Cape Coral Seahawks made short work of their District 3A-13 tournament semifinal soccer game Wednesday night.
They rolled past Island Coast 8-0 at Dave Warkentin Stadium to reach Friday’s district championship game against Mariner.
The eighth goal ended play with 17:18 remaining on the clock on the mercy rule.
Carlos Avendano, who assisted on the first three Seahawks goals, scored the last one.
“These boys are self-motivated at this point,” Seahawks coach Paolo Acosta said. “We’re here to play entertaining soccer. That’s why there’s fans out here. They want to see good touches, they want to see good play.”
James “Cannon” Smith had two goals for Cape (14-2-4) with Gianni Cognata scoring his team-high 21st goal of the season in addition to an assist.
“You have to imagine playing against a team that has won the state championship before,” Gaators coach Emilio Baradith said. “A team that’s been prepared. They’ve got everything going for them. A great team. We tried our best.”
Cognata and Jonathan Jimenez scored in the first nine minutes of play to get the Seahawks rolling. Andre Blanco made it 3-0 and Smith’s two tallies made it 5-0 Cape at intermission.
Christopher Iturbe and Sergio “Mateo” Arango added second-half goals, with Arango’s tally coming on a penalty kick before Avendano put a cap on the night.
Jimenez assisted on Avendano’s goal. Jonathan Torres and Parker Stone also had assists for the Seahawks.
“Today we finished with 26 shots on goal,” Acosta said. “When you put those away it’s tough for the other team to come back.”
“They came through the middle,” Baradith said. “We couldn’t get control of the ball in the middle. That’s how they came in for almost all their goals except for one.”
Kyal Webber and Rosmy Cerdas split time in goal for the Seahawks to share the shutout.
With the match in hand by halftime, two important factors for Cape were to avoid injuries or costly fouls in the second half. Yellow or red cards Wednesday would hamper the Seahawks in Friday’s final.
“I was trying to avoid all injuries or cards,” Acosta said. “Today we got no yellow cards. That was very important. We didn’t jeopardize anyone from playing or facing suspension for the next game.”
Cape has outscored its first two district opponents, North Fort Myers and Island Coast, by a 13-0 margin.
Friday’s championship is a rematch of last year’s district final, which Cape won at Mariner.
“I expect a great game,” Acosta said. “It’s a rivalry. It’s a nice way to go into a final, I think. Two rivals going in to play for the championship.
“We made it to the state playoffs. That was our first concern. Now the goal is to bring the district title back to Cape,” said Acosta. “We won it on Mariner’s field last year and this year we want to win it on our own field.”
Baradith saw the bright side for his Gators (6-9-2), who defeated South Fort Myers in the first round of the tournament.
“For Island Coast this is the first time in the semifinals,” Baradith said. “This is great for us. This is wonderful. We’ve never experienced something like this.”
Mariner 6, Ida Baker 0: Erick Rivera scored two goals to lead the Tritons (18-4-3) past the Bulldogs in Wednesday’s first semifinal.
Hunter Sperry had a goal and an assist while Joey Lane, Jordan Vazquez and Jacob Ward also scored Mariner goals. Austen Hopson had two assists.
Jake Milos had two saves while recording the shutout in goal for coach Martin Cardenas’ Tritons.
- District 2A-12: Tournament host Clewiston pulled out a 2-1 victory Wednesday night in the semifinal round against Bishop Verot.
Nick Petrozzi scores Verot’s lone goal and goalkeeper Michael Hafele made eight saves along the way. The loss leaves Verot with a 15-5-1 season mark and knocks them out of the state regional playoff picture.
Clewiston hosts the district championship at 7 p.m. Friday.
Sports editor Jim Linette contributed to this report.