Port St. Joe edges Franklin County for district crown

PORT ST. JOE – The lunch menu on Friday at Port St. Joe High School was fairly sparse for the Tiger Shark soccer team.

The discussion was all about victory in that night’s District 1-1A final against rival Franklin County.

“We had a meeting at lunch and we decided that we were going to win, we had to win, we were not going to let us lose this one,” said senior co-captain Daniel May.

A Gibraltar defense and a converted opportunity by freshman striker Marcel Duarte, whose 17 goals and 40 points leads Port St. Joe, were sufficient in the Tiger Sharks’ 1-0 victory at Sam Cox Field.

Both teams will play Tuesday, Franklin County (7-6-2) traveling to play the winner of Tallahassee Maclay-Lafayette Mayo; Port St. Joe (15-2-1) hosting the winner.

The teams had split home-and-home during the season; Franklin winning at home 1-0, Port St. Joe at home 2-0.

They were the district’s top two seeds and the title game was moved from Niceville after each won Wednesday district semifinals.

“This might have been our best defensive effort of the year,” said Port St. Joe coach Gary Hindley.

“We wanted to mark (junior midfielder Elton Olvera), their most dangerous player. We wanted to be aware of where he was. Our game plan worked out. Sometimes that doesn’t happen; tonight it did.”

The defensive effort was total for Port St. Joe, but the backline of May, Blaine Bush, LaGrand McLemore, Raymond Robles and Daniel Jones was particularly impenetrable, allowing just a single shot on first-year goalkeeper Walt Bowers.

“That’s the way I like it,” May said of the lack Franklin County shots on net. “The backline, I thought we played smart and we played composed.”

The game was played primarily in the midfield throughout the first half, with the Seahawks enjoying what passed for any foray into opposition territory for much of the first 35 minutes.

But the Tiger Sharks pressed the action in the final few minutes and when the Seahawks mishandled a clearing effort roughly 25 yards from goal in the final minute, Duarte was there to pounce on the loose ball.

He dashed in untouched and kicked a perfect dribbler past Franklin keeper Daniel Carrino and into the net just as regular time elapsed.

The lone threat Bowers faced was from a pass off a free kick in the middle of the field to Tanner Klink who drilled a shot from the top of the circle that Bowers punched away.

Over the second 40 minutes, the Tiger Sharks kept the ball primarily in the Seahawk end. Duarte twice temporarily got loose in front of the net but could not convert and Port St. Joe enjoyed six corner kicks – half in extra time – and two free kicks.

Meanwhile, until the final four minutes Franklin County could simply not penetrate the Tiger Shark defense.

“It was a hard-fought game and this is a tough loss,” said Franklin County coach Jono Williams. “They are our rivals. We prepared hard for this. But we are still alive and we have to shake this off and get ready for Tuesday.”