As the 2021-2022 high school soccer season comes to a close, district tournaments will kick off for Plant City area soccer teams and continue throughout the rest of the week and next week as well.
Below is a preview of the action ahead for Durant, Plant City and Strawberry Crest.
Durant
Durant’s boys team put together one of their most successful seasons in years, finishing the regular season with an 8-4-1 record and reaching their highest single-season win total since going 16-8-2 in 2010-2011. After losing two of their first three contests, falling to Plant and Newsome, the Cougars rattled off an eight game unbeaten streak that included seven wins and a 0-0 draw against Sumner. Despite the strong mid-season run, Durant ended the year on a two-game skid, with a narrow 2-1 loss to 8-3-2 Wharton and a 4-0 loss to 10-1-1 Freedom. In their first meeting early in the year, Durant fell to Newsome 3-0.
The boys will start their district tournament against 11-6-1 Newsome on Monday, Jan. 31, advancing straight to the 7A District 7 semifinal after earning a bye through the quarterfinal round as the district’s No. 3 seed.
Durant’s girls team put together arguably the best campaign among Plant City area teams this season, finishing the year with a 14-3-2 record and their lone losses coming at the hands of 13-3 Plant, 10-4-3 Newsome and 15-3-4 Sickles.
Durant was led by four double-digit goal-scorers, all coming from different classes. Senior Jenna Jorgensen’s set the pace with 16 goals. Junior Katlyn Levasseur finished just behind Jorgensen with 14 goals, followed by sophomore Rachel Horn’s 13 goals and freshman MyKala Ulrich’s 12 goals.
Durant’s girls finished as the second seed in the 7A District 7 standings, earning a bye of their own through the quarterfinal round. They will kick against No. 3 seed Newsome on Friday, Jan. 28 at 7 p.m.
Plant City
On the heels of an extremely strong 2020-2021 season in which Plant City’s boys put together a 15-3-1 record with a district championship win over Bloomingdale and a trip to the regional semifinals, they started their season 1-1 with a loss to Shorecrest Prep and a 3-2 win over Strawberry Crest before finding just two wins and 10 losses over their next 12 contests.
Despite the midseason struggles for a team that saw 13 seniors graduate the year before, the young Raiders team bounced back at the end of the year with three wins and a draw in their last four regular season contests. Plant City will begin their district tournament against 8-5 Riverview on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. The Raiders lost to Riverview 4-0 in their previous contest.
Plant City’s girls put together an 8-4-1 record this year, a slight improvement over their 7-5-1 record the year before, but that wasn’t enough to secure a bye through to the semifinals in a tough district that also includes 11-1-3 Lakewood Ranch, 14-3-2 Durant and 10-4-3 Newsome.
Led by an experienced upperclass trio of goal-scorers in Jasmin Molina, Kiana Kropp and Arisbeth Gutierrez, the Raiders will play 8-5 Riverview on Wednesday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. In their previous meeting earlier this season, Plant City bested Riverview with a 3-2 victory.
Strawberry Crest
Strawberry Crest’s boys found themselves battling in a district where seeds were separated by narrow margins, earning the third seed at 7-5-1 as Wharton finished with the second seed at 8-3-2 and Hillsborough just behind them in the fourth seed at 5-6-1. Strawberry Crest was led in scoring by junior Eliel Arroyo, followed by sophomore Edwin Alejandro and senior Moez Bouazizi.
In a six-team 6A District 10 where just two teams earned a bye, the Chargers faced a 2-9 Armwood Hawks team on Wednesday.
After two consecutive district championships, their first district titles in school history, Strawberry Crest’s girls began their search for another this week. Led by star junior forward Ezra Carpenter, named one of Plant City’s Top 5 Athletes by the Plant City Observer in 2021, the Chargers compiled a 7-3-3 record and earned the third seed in 6A District 10.
Carpenter scored a staggering 24 goals in 11 contests throughout the 2021-2022 regular seasonstraw, followed by sophomores Raegan Monroe with six goals and Gabrielle Broding with four goals.
The Chargers played 4-6-1 Hillsborough on Wednesday night.
While both of Strawberry Crest’s games were played prior to publishing, the contests came after the Plant City Observer had gone to press on Wednesday evening. Continued district tournament coverage will be provided.