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River Ridge Boys Lose Tournament Opener

Nease 3, River Ridge 1

Eric Horchy/SUNCOAST NEWS

River Ridge junior Joey Balsamo slides for the ball in front of Nease forward Max Lang.

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By Eric Horchy | The Suncoast News

Published: January 3, 2008

TAMPA - TAMPA - Participating in the prestigious 14th Annual Admiral High School Invitational Soccer Classic at Tampa's Ed Radice Sports Complex late Wednesday afternoon, River Ridge fell short in their first-day match up against defending state champion Jacksonville-Nease, losing 3-1.

Thirty-two teams from all around the state will converge on Ed Radice's nine playing fields over the next three days to vie in the round robin tournament. The event is broken up into two separate 16-team brackets of four, four-team pools.

Fighting through cold, blustery winds Wednesday, the Royal Knights (6-5-1) competed well the strong 10-2-2 Panthers, but Nease's late goal immediately following a blocked penalty kick opportunity sealed River Ridge's fate.

"We actually played really well," River Ridge head coach Michael McHugh said of his boy's performance. "We had three starters sitting so it was a little bit of a rag-tag lineup, but they (Nease) were state champs last year and if they didn't get that penalty kick, I felt like we were going to tie it up."

A lack of offensive consistency is something McHugh said has been his team's story all year, and it was apparent Wednesday as well.

River Ridge was able to match Nease's aggressiveness and work the ball down field in the first half, but unable to sustain possession long enough for a controlled attack.

The Panthers took advantage of that by finding an opening in River Ridge's defense midway through the opening period. Chris Beyette banked a shot off the right post that got by keeper Eric Karcinski for the 1-0 lead that held into halftime.

Nease looked to be running away with victory early in the second half on Filip Ivanov's goal, pulling ahead 2-0, but the Royal Knight offense began to come to life.

After just missing out on an opportunity to halve the Panther lead when junior Alex Ratkovic's free kick was blocked and Vinny Panetta's attempted put-back on the rebound glanced off the crossbar, the River Ridge offense finally converted.

Less than a minute later, junior Blake Monaghan made the Royal Knight's best offensive push pay off by finding the back of the net, cutting the Panther lead to 2-1.

While Nease was on the attack more frequently throughout the game, holding a 14-7 shots-on-goal advantage, River Ridge began gaining momentum after getting on the board – until the late Panther penalty kick.

Nease's Joe McKinley was tripped up inside the River Ridge goal box and subsequently awarded the close-range attempt. Known as being one of the most difficult tasks in all of sports, Karcinski, the Royal Knight keeper, dove to his left and stonewalled McKinley's kick and then reached to his right to block the first rebounded shot.

With the River Ridge defense unable to clear after Karcinski's phenomenal series of stuffs, the third time was a charm for Nease. Beyette scored his second goal of the day and sealed the Panther's tournament-opening victory.

The Knights will try to bounce back Thursday when they meet up with Manatee High, and they close out their Pool 2 competition Friday afternoon against Freedom.

Depending upon those outcomes, the semifinal and final matches will be played Saturday.

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