Published Tuesday, May 06, 2008 3:05 PM
Updated Tuesday, May 06, 2008 3:05 PM

 

Patriots and Wave sent packing by Beaufort

Cheering by members of the Summerville soccer team wasn’t enough to lift the Fort Dorchester boys over Beaufort.

At the beginning of the season, coaches in Region 8-AAAA speculated about how the competition in their region would likely rival that of any other region in the state. The competition did turn out to be stiff, so stiff in fact that the playoff seeding for the top four teams in the region, which last week were all ranked among the top 11 teams in the state, came down to a single kick.

With several members of the Green Wave team present and rooting for the Patriots Thursday at Bagwell Stadium, Beaufort downed the Fort 2-1 on a powerful kick by Andrew Settlemire with just under 14:00 remaining in the second half. The win gave Beaufort (14-3, 8-2 in region play) out-right ownership of this year’s region title and dropped Summerville and Fort to the No. 3 and No. 4 seeds for the region, respectfully.

Had the Patriots (11-4, 6-4) won, there would have been a four-way tie for first place in the region. Tiebreakers would have given Summerville (13-3, 7-3) the top seed and the Fort the second, meaning both would have played at home in the first round of the playoffs. Instead, the Green Wave traveled to Dutch Fork Tuesday and the Patriots traveled to Spring Valley to play the No. 1 team in the state.

“Our guys played hard and created opportunities,” Fort coach Anthony Pelton said. “They did a good job of putting pressure on Beaufort, but we made one mistake in the back and they capitalized on it. Now we have to face the No. 1 team in the nation.”

The Fort struck quick Thursday as midfielder Diego Lizarazo hit a shot from just outside the penalty box in the first two minutes of play. Beaufort took only three minutes to answer as Settlemire received a pass from the right and landed it into a wide open left-side of the net to tie the game with his first of two scores on the night.

Between Settlemire’s goals, the Patriots took several good shots, but some just missed the mark while nine others were saved by Beaufort keeper Erik Mozzo. Fort keeper Zach Davis also had an active night in goal, finishing with eight saves.

Contact Roger Lee @ 873-9424 ext. 213 or rlee@journalscene.com.