LAKELAND — For 30 minutes Mulberry and Merritt Island were locked in a scoreless tie. A 10-minute spurt by Merritt Island spanning two halves changed everything.
The Mustangs scored three times in less than 10 minutes to give them more than enough of a cushion for a 4-1 victory over the Panthers on Wednesday night in the Class 4A, Region 2 quarterfinals at Bryant Stadium.
“It’s one of those things where you have to be aware of what our game plan was,” Mulberry coach Chris Crawshaw said. “They lost two guys and both of those guys scored. You can’t lose track of them with the guys that they got.”
Merritt Island (15-1-1) opened the scoring with 9:04 left in the first half when Josh Fox took a cross in front and buried a shot into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead.
Fox nearly scored two more goals but hit the crossbar a little more than a minute later, then sent another hard shot just left of the goal only a minute later.
With the momentum clearly on their side, the Mustangs forced a penalty by the Panthers (11-5-1) in the box to secure a penalty kick.
Grant Paparella took the shot, but Mulberry goalkeeper Bruce Lee turned the shot away to keep it a one-score game with 3:06 remaining in the first half.
Paparella would not be denied at the 1:56 mark, as he capitalized on a loose ball off a free kick in front of the net and buried a shot to make it 2-0.
Merritt Island made it 3-0 just 21 seconds into the second half when Juan Valencia took a cross from Brady Denaburg to complete the Mustangs’ three-goal outburst.
Chandler Crawshaw got Mulberry on the board at the 38:24 mark of the second half to give the Panthers some life, but Merritt Island clamped down and finished things off with a goal from Denaburg with 12:39 left.
