The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 122

1 0-ManateeSarasota The Tampa Tribune, Monday, August 29, 1988 Southeast shows midseason form in beating 'Canes Prep Football coaches have shown us leadership and guidance." The second half between Class 3A Palmetto and Class 4A Bayshore started in a steady rain that grew worse. Neither side could move the ball on their first possessions, but Palmetto got a break when a 49-yard punt by Spencer Taylor rolled dead on the Bruins' 2-yard line. Palmetto then forced a fumble on a handoff from Bayshore quarterback Darren Brown to Henry Williams, and the Tigers' Jeff Pedonesi recovered. Three plays later, Palmetto quarterback Greg Sanders kept the ball and managed to getarbund right end and into the end zone. Lightning had been spotted in the vicinity, and the officials called both teams to the sidelines after Palmetto's score.

After a 10-minute wait, the rest of the half was canceled, limiting the opportunities of Palmetto coach Steve Hastings and Bayshore's Mario Valcarcel to evaluate players. 'Palmetto and Bayshore will get another crack at each other Oct. 21 at Palmetto. Kinnan. "We got beat in every phase of the game.

I didn't expect us to play with such a lack of intensity. "We played like we practiced," Kinnan added. "We had a sorry week of practice and a sorry jamboree." The half did nothing to settle Manatee's quarterback dilemma, except to indicate that Kinnan will look past Crisp and Antwonne Newsome to find a regular-season signal caller. Sophomore Jesse Curtis, recovering from strained knee ligaments, will get a shot, along with junior wide receiver Dwayne Jefferson. Southeast wasted little time in rolling down the field Friday.

On third-and-three from the 39-yard line, Hug-" gins connected with Duval for 19 yards on a quick pop over the middle. 7 On the next play, Carley scampered around the corner for 34 yards, to the Manatee 8. Williams shed a couple of tackles on the next play to score standing up. Williams also scored on a 15-yard burst, after Johnson kept the drive alive by outleaping Jackie Davis for a reception on third-and-19. "We stuck together.

We executed real well," said think we have great potential, and the By MIKE HENRY Tribune Sports Writer BRADENTON Southeast High fans' only worry after Friday night's Manatee County football jamboree is probably how the Seminoles can possibly hope to maintain the same level of play for three months. The Class 4A Seminoles took it to a shell-shocked Class 5A Manatee squad in every area to post a surprisingly lopsided 17-0 victory in a half of football at Manatee's Hawkins Stadium. Quarterback Craig Huggins executed the option attack smartly, and the Southeast offensive line created big holes for running backs Johnny Carley and Earnest Williams. Huggins showed he's an accurate passer, hooking up with Roosevelt Duval and lanky Julian Johnson on scoring drives. i The Southeast defenders were consistently in the face of Manatee players, forcing turnovers on four consecutive 'Cane possessions.

Darek Houston intercepted two passes, and Bryan Vincent swooped in the backfield to force an errant pitch by Manatee quarterback Prather Crisp that was recovered by Carlton Hadley. And 5-foot-5, 147-pound kicker Kenny Moats got into the act, booting a 40-yard field goal with plenty of distance to spare. The best way to describe the half was: domination. The second half of Friday's jamboree was canceled after 9:51 because of lightning Palmetto was leading Bayshore 7-0. So, what if the lightning had struck during the first half? Would Southeast's overall strength and some glaring Manatee weaknesses have then remained secret until the start of the regular season? Southeast head coach Paul Maechtle searched his mind afterward to find an area in which the Seminoles were deficient.

"It looked like our offensive line didn't get off the ball as quickly as they can," he said finally. "On some of our long runs, I saw our backs doing a lot of this," said Maechtle, twisting his hips. A somber Joe Kinnan failed to find a bright spot in the performance of the 'Canes. Now, so much work is required for Manatee to prepare for its opener against Sarasota and a brutal district schedule. "That was a good, old-fashioned whipping," said Baseball Yanks clinch division title A Tribune Staff Report SARASOTA A two-run triple" by Hernan Cortes broke a 5-5 tie in the sixth inning, pushing the Sarasota Yankees past the Bradenton Expos Saturday and allowing the Yankees to clinch the Southern Division of the Gulf Coast League at Ed Smith Complex.

The Yankees will play the. Northern Division champion Royals Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Payne Park for the GCL crown. Aaron Hartzog was the winning pitcher Saturday, despite giving up all five Expos runs in seven innings. Mark Ohlms recorded a save.

The victory enabled the Yankees to maintain a two-game lead over the Dodgers and the White Sox with just one game left in the regular season. Over-40 team places third in World Series TAMPA After five games in five days and a third-place finish in the 1988 Over-40 World Series, the Tampa Bay Stars returned home Saturday night from New Orleans tired, a little sore and looking forward to more baseball competition. "We found out we can still play the game," said Stars player-manager Roy Carrasco. "We may not be able to run, hit, throw or play defense like we did as kids and teenagers, but we sure can still have a great time playing the game of baseball." The Stars, comprised of 18 players, most of whom reside in Hillsborough County, posted a 3-2 record in the 10-team, week-long event plagued by rain and wet fields. Eight teams from the United States were entered, with two teams hailing from the Virgin Islands.

Carrasco said he was especially pleased with the team's hitting and pitching. Most of the Stars, who-range in age from 40 to 51 years-old, had been away from the game" for as many as 10 to 15 years, some even longer. "We played five games in five days because of rain delays and postponements, but we would have been ready for' a sixth game in six days if we qualified for the championship," said Carrasco. "The guys got a taste of competition again. Now they want more.

A lot more." St. Thomas and St Croix reportedly played for the championship Sunday. 8 i a m. Photograph by MIKE CUTINO Sarasota proved it was No. 1 in the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series.

Coach's faith in his players well-reiarded Youth Baseball also had a save in the tournament Along with Hunt, Ward was named to the all-tournament team as an outfielder. Sarasota's postseason record was 16-1, its only loss to Georgia in the Southeast Regional Tournament. Sarasota received tremendous support throughout the postseason. Almost all the players' parents were in Vallejo to watch their sons climb the mountaintop of Babe Ruth League baseball. Those are memories that last forever.

as Dean could have told you before the game started. Dean called on workhorse pitcher David Hunt after Honolulu scored a run off starter Kerry Ward in the third inning. Hunt held Honolulu in check, and Dean sensed something good was about to happen when Honolulu starter Tony Gabriel left after the fourth, having used up his pitching eligibility in the game. Sarasota used four walks off reliever David Carino in its five-run fifth. Ward drove in one run with a grounder, Eric Goldis walked to force in a run and Hunt lined a two-run single.

Nathan Grados drove in the inning's final run with a single. Sarasota nailed the coffin shut in the sixth. After a pair of walks to James Franklin and Brian Whitlock, Brian Welter singled a run home. Two runs scored on Jeff Selph's grounder that was bobbled, and Erik Keech and Matt Hobbie batted in the last two runs. Hunt gave up three runs over the last two innings, but that didn't affect his status as the tournament's most valuable player.

Saturday's game was his third victory, and he A Tribune Staff Report SARASOTA Manager Bob Dean seemed overconfident last week discussing his Sarasota team's chances in the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series at Vallejo, Calif. Dean's patience wore thin the few times Sarasota fell behind in games. Each time, his abundance of faith was rewarded as Sarasota doggedly fought back. Saturday's title game against Honolulu was no exception. Undaunted by trailing 1-0 after four innings, Sarasota exploded for five runs in both the fifth and sixth innings en route to a 10-4 victory and the World Series championship.

Honolulu had reached the championship game by defeating Lexington, Ky. 7-1 Friday night. Dean had gone so far as to say that Lexington didn't want a rematch against Sarasota because "they know they can't beat us." Before Saturday's game, Sarasota was the lone unbeaten entry in the tournament, and would have had a second crack at Honolulu if it had lost the first game Saturday. But a rematch was unnecessary Another championship eludes Strikers' Connell 1 Pro Soccer -v'' I (I mm tm i V. I If: 4 If there was one I thought we should have won, it was this one 99 Mike Connell Fort Lauderdale Strikers did all you can.

We didn't do that" The Strikers, loaded with well-experienced veterans like Ray Hudson, Nene Cubillas, Thomas Rongen, Ken Fogarty, Arnie Mausser et al, had played in more important championship games, something that may have caused their downfall. Ironically, American Michael Brady scored the winning goal at the 35-minute mark Saturday before an announced crowd of 4,000 in Lockhart Stadium, a far cry in atmosphere and attendance from Connell's three other championship final crowds. "It," said Connell of the ASL final, "doesn't, compare in status to the others." Spartan Stadium in San Jose had 17,009 in attendance for Connell's rookie outdoor final. In 1978 at Giants Stadium, when the Rowdies lost 3-1 to the Cosmos, there were 74,901 and a year later at the same site when Vancouver topped Tampa Bay 2-1, a total of 50,699 fans saw the championship. Those figures are a far cry from the two-game ASL series which drew about 10,000.

"There was not the (pre-game) tension around the other finals," said Connell, admitting the fire in his gut wasn't as hot as it was in 1975, "and that was a reflection of a first-year league being very, very cautious. "And the fact that it was a semi-pro situation, the newspapers did not give you a lot of By RICHARD MUDRY Tribune Sports Writer TAMPA On his right ring finger sits the dream of any athlete. The silver-colored ring bearing a diamond in the middle of a soccer ball makes Mike Connell feel good each time he looks at it. A championship ring, after all, is an athlete's prized career possession. And it reminds Connell of his lone soccer championship in 1975.

That was his rookie year as a pro and the Rowdies defeated Portland in the cup final in San Jose, Calif. "When it is really special is when I'm sitting with the players I played with," said Connell Sunday, a day after his Fort Lauderdale Strikers lost a 3-2 decision to the Washington Diplomats in the American Soccer League final. "They understood what we did. It is real special." Thirteen years have passed since that sunny California afternoon when a 2-0 victory sent the area soccer fans into a euphoria. But after playing in his fourth final and ending up on the losing end in three of them, the 32-year-old South African still feels the disappointment of defeat.

"What a major disappointment," said the former Rowdie of Saturday's defeat "They came out fired up and more determined than us. They made us pay for our mis- 1 few 1 2 C- takes. Three times now I've been the groom." After the elation of '75, the frustration of 1978-79 and '88 continues to dog the popular Connell. And, in one big way, said Connell, the 1988 ASL Championship is one that shouldn't have got away. "If there was one I thought we should have won, it was this one," said Connell who commuted between Tampa and Fort Lauderdale for the games.

"We had all the talent We were the superior team in the league and in the end our downfall was we were a good attacking team that came up against a very solid team at the back. You don't get a chance to go to the finals very often and when you do, you want to walk off knowing you 4 5TNw If a Tribune photograph by BONNIE JO MOUNT Mike Connell said the Fort Lauderdale Strikers may not have been as fired-up for the ASL title game as they needed to be..