College Sports

By JOE BUIE
Staff Writer

The Cinderella team of the national tournament has been relegated to the consolation bracket.

Community College of Baltimore County-Essex, which upset then-No. 6 Louisburg (N.C.) in the district final, lost to top-seeded Georgia Perimeter, 3-0, Thursday in the opening game of nationals at the Pat Hartley Complex.

Georgia Perimeter was also the No. 1 seed last year, but the Jaguars were beaten in their first match. They avoided a repeat by successfully executing two free kicks and also scoring off a corner kick to beat Essex (13-6-1).

Each team had six shots-on-goal, and Essex produced six corner kicks to just two for Georgia Perimeter (20-0-2), which will play in the semifinals at 4 p.m. Friday against the Jefferson-San Jacinto winner.

Jaguars head coach Marc Zagara expects his team to play better than it did against Essex.

"We didn't possess it, we didn't work off the ball, we didn't make good runs, and we gave the ball away," he said. "We had issues out there. In the last 15-20 minutes, we did OK. I had my whole second and third team in there and they possessed it a lot better than my first team did."

Freshman Michael Mecerod scored eight minutes into the match on a 22-yard free kick to give Georgia Perimeter a 1-0 lead, which stood up at halftime.

Kingsley Onwuka failed to convert for Essex despite a one-on-one with the goalkeeper five minutes into the second half, and then Georgia Perimeter scored on another free kick - this one by sophomore Chris Ugarte in the 52nd minute of the match.

Freshman Bediako Swan cleaned up a corner kick in front of the goal to make it 3-0 in the 70th minute.

Essex will play an elimination match at noon Friday against the Jefferson-San Jacinto loser.

Yavapai 1, Illinois Central 0

Yavapai College (Ariz.), making its 17th national tournament appearance, advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Illinois Central in the third game of the day.

The second-seeded Roughriders (22-2) controlled play in the first half but went to the break scoreless. It didn't stay that way much longer, thanks to a perfectly executed play.

Freshman defender Evan McNiel made a crossing pass to 6-3 freshman attacker Francis Khamis, who notched his 21st goal of the season with a power header from eight yards out in the 54th minute.

Seventh-seeded Illinois Central (18-5) went into scramble mode and pressured the Roughriders occasionally for the remainder of the match. Matthew Head took a shot wide of the goal, but close enough to make the Yavapai goalkeeper dive with 10 minutes left.

Brian Santos got off a shot inside the penalty area with 6:18 left, but the ball was deflected before reaching the goal line.

The Cougars finished with five shots-on-goal to Yavapai's four.

Yavapai will now play the Marshalltown (Iowa)-Mercer County (N.J.) winner at 6 p.m. Friday. Illinois Central faces the Marshalltown-Mercer loser at 2 p.m. Friday in an elimination match.

- Joe Buie