Fort Meade Advances To Regional Final With 2-0 Victory

Sat. February 04, 2012 at 2:00 a.m. | By Solange Reyner

By SOLANGE REYNER

THE LEDGER

CLASS 1A BOYS SOCCER

Fort Meade's Jack Cortez and Dylan Linares are used to carrying the team on offense.

Not on Friday afternoon.

With both players pressured against Windermere Prep in a Class 1A regional semifinal game in Windermere, the Miners got a big lift from freshman Freddy Jaimes and junior Eric Villalos, whose second-half goals helped the team advance to the regional finals.

Fort Meade, which won 2-0, will host Tampa Preparatory on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Tampa Prep defeated Indian Rocks Christian 3-1 on Friday.

Jaimes, who scored his first goal this season on Tuesday, netted one for the Miners with 28 minutes left in the game.

Villalos followed with another goal about 10 minutes later to give Fort Meade some breathing room.

"[Windermere] really crunched up the middle, which didn't let Jack or Dylan really do much," Fort Meade coach Lynn Haase said.

"They had to fight the urge to shoot, but they controlled the middle well."

Jaimes and Villalos did the rest, breaking through after a 0-0 first half.

"We were really frustrated because we knew we could beat them, but we couldn't score," said Jaimes, who said he would celebrate with a nice little snack after the game.

"I'm going to go to Circle K and get a big drink and then order two McDouble's at ­McDonald's," Jaimes said.

"It'll help fuel me for the next game."