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Ridgewood Wins Opener At Winter Tournament

Ridgewood 5, Citrus 2

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: December 27, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - NEW PORT RICHEY - Ridgewood High School opened its seventh annual Winter Boy's Soccer Tournament Wednesday night and saw the home team run away with a 5-2 victory over Citrus High School.

The Rams, led by the outstandingly aggressive play of their frontline and midfield, wasted no time in applying pressure to an undermanned Citrus club.

Before the match, Hurricane Head Coach Steve Ekeli informed that four of his starters were missing from Wednesday night's lineup. With no seniors on the roster to begin with, such an absence proved to hurt that much more.

After just missing on numerous quality attacks, Ridgewood's tenacity and energy paid off less than 15 minutes into the game. Freshman Josh Gray found junior forward Mike Piemonte on the right side of the Citrus goal box for a 1-0 Rams' lead.

Ridgewood (6-10-1) immediately went on the offensive again, continuing to control the game's pace.

Forward Matt Pappas, who had just missed on two earlier opportunities near the net, did not let another chance slip away with 18:05 remaining in the first half. Showing excellent footwork and ball handling, the junior skirted two Citrus defenders and reached the back of the net to put Ridgewood on top 2-0.

About 10 minutes following Pappas's goal, Citrus (8-4-3) was able to sustain one of its few first half attacks. The Hurricanes took advantage of a corner kick when sophomore Junior Varsity call-up Tommy Hibbard headed the crossing pass off the post and past Ridgewood goalkeeper Phil Bianco.

Citrus began to show signs of life after getting on the board, but Ridgewood put a quick end to that, scoring again less than three minutes later.

Steve Landreth hit fellow midfielder Alen Sisic with a long cross-field pass that Sisic slammed by Citrus' Adam SantaFe. The goal was the last of the first half with Ridgewood commandingly on top, 3-1.

The final 40:00 began much like the first. The Rams offense came out flying again, getting more and more looks at the net until Sisic tallied his second score of the night, booming a low, left-footed line drive past SantaFe again.

For the night, Ridgewood out shot Citrus 20-9.

That goal, less than ten minutes into the second half, more or less put the game out of reach.

Citrus's Josh Ashton, another J.V. call-up, scored the Hurricanes' second and final goal on an impressive 30-plus yard free kick that he bent past Bianco.

Citrus did manage to get more scoring chances in the second half, but couldn't convert.

Gray put the icing on the cake for the Rams with little more than ten minutes to play. He barely received a Pappas pass inside the Hurricane goal box and managed to get enough foot on the ball to roll it past a charging SantaFe.

Following the game, Rams' Head Coach Ed McComiskey said his squad is finally beginning to come together as a team halfway through the season. Many of Ridgewood's soccer players participated in fall sports that keep them from the team early in the year.

"We're just now starting to gel," McComiskey said. "Things are beginning to turn around for us."

"This is one of the reasons why I have the tournament," he added. "To give us some games over the break so they can come into the second half of the season with some momentum and be peaking just around district time."

The six-team tournament at Ridgewood High will continue through Friday afternoon.

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