Lady Tiger Sharks eliminated in district tourney

A program-best season came to a crashing halt last week as the Port St. Joe girls fell 1-0 to host Franklin County in the District 4-1A semifinals.

The Lady Tiger Sharks’ season ends with a 9-4-1 mark, the best in the program’s history.

“With only one senior player (midfielder and team-high scorer Rachel Jones) on the squad, the future looks bright for the girls’ school program,” said Port St. Joe coach Gary Hindley. “Even though we had great difficulty in the offensive third of the field tonight, we succeeded in playing fairly good soccer throughout and really had the pressure on at the end, but couldn't find a way or the luck to score the equalizer.

Hindley noted that in addition to Jones, a standout midfielder who had a team-high 15 goals this season, the Lady Tiger Sharks started three freshmen, four sophomores, a junior and on eighth-grader for most of the year.

“The whole team came a long way this year and hopefully, they will just continue to get better and continue to enjoy their high school soccer experience," Hindley said.

Freshman goalkeeper Shannon Pridgeon had four saves on nine Franklin County shots in the district semifinal, which matched No. 2 seeded Port St. Joe and third-seeded Franklin County.

Port St. Joe had 12 shots, but could not find the back of the net.

Freshman Keeper, Shannon Prideon, made 4 saves on 9 Franklin shots. PSJ had 12 shots.

Franklin County scored midway through the first half and hung from there. Franklin County xxxxx to Rocky Bayou in last Friday’s district title game and will move on to the region playoffs this week.

Boys’ district tournament

The Port St. Joe boys, who finished the regular season 13-2-1, also a program best, is the top seed for this week’s District 4-1A tournament.

The Tiger Sharks faced fourth-seeded Freeport at Twin Oaks Park in Niceville in Wednesday’s semifinals (Check www.starfl.com for results). The other semifinal pitted Franklin County, the third seed, against second-seeded Rocky Bayou.

The winners of the semifinals will play for the district title at 6 p.m. CT at Twin Oaks Park. The semifinal winners are guaranteed a spot in the Region 1-1A playoffs.