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Lancers Team Makes Sun Bowl Quarterfinal

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By DAREK SHARP, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 5, 2008

PLANT CITY - Two of the Plant City Lancers Soccer Club teams qualified for the Tampa Bay Sun Bowl tournament held last weekend, and the results were impressive.

Plant City's under 15 boys' team made it to the quarterfinals on the strength of three victories, before falling to CVYSA 92 Blast Blue of Hickory, N.C., by a 2-1 score. Blast Blue lost in the semifinals to the eventual champions.

"We played some of our best soccer of the year," said coach Chris Black, adding that his team was the first in Lancers history to win its grouping at the Sun Bowl.

The Sun Bowl had 150 boys' teams entered, and some of the U-17 games were at Mike Sansone Park with the rest of the action in Tampa. The premiere youth tournament is in its 30th year.

Twenty-five teams were in the U-15 field, and the Lancers made it to the final eight. After starting with a 2-0 win over FC American Omni on Dec. 27, with goals by Matt Encinosa and Andres Plata, the Lancers lost 2-0 to United Rapids of Ohio.

However, United Rapids dropped its other three games, and Plant City bounced back with two victories to finish on top of Group E.

On Dec. 28, the Lancers got goals from Plata, Jorge Martinez and Ramundo Marquez to top KFC Holland Blue of Tennessee. On the morning of Dec. 29, the Lancers scored a 3-0 win over NASA 11 Premier from Georgia. The quarterfinal defeat took place that night at Temple Terrace.

Holding steady in goal for the Lancers is Juan Nevarrette, who is playing on the U-15 team as a 13-year-old.

The next big event for the Lancers is when they host the Tampa Bay Classic around Presidents Day.

Also competing at the Sun Bowl was the Lancers U-18 team, which competed in the U-19 Orange bracket. Plant City went 2-0-1 against out-of-state teams before losing 1-0 to Wellington, in the game that determined the group champion.

At Mike Sansone, Dunedin won the U-17 Orange tournament.

Reporter Darek Sharp can be reached at dsharp@tampa

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