Seahawks Surge Into Soccer Regionals

The Sunlake Seahawks will be making an unlikely appearance in the 4A
Regionals Tuesday night against rival Pasco.

Land O' Lakes High School is usually the pedigree of Pasco County soccer. They have been district champions four years running and show up strong at regionals.

This year is a different story.

Sunlake Head Coach Sam Koleduk has his team geared up and ready to make a run at the regional finals on Friday.

It has not been an easy road. Land O' Lakes and Pasco have handed three losses to the Seahawks this year, including a nail-biter in the District 8 Finals.

Sunlake played a tough game and kept the score tied at one most of the game. It was only on a deflection off a free kick, late in the game that put Land O' Lakes over the top and gave them the No. 1 seed going into regionals.

“Our district has prepared us. We played Land O' Lakes really tough in the district finals,” Coach Koleduk said.

Seahawks team members played the match of their lives in their quarterfinal matchup versus Hudson. Hudson had won three matches in a row to win its district and were playing well but Sunlake crushed them to the tune of 6-1.

Meanwhile, Land O' Lakes fell 0-1 to Pasco in the opening round of regionals. Sunlake will now travel to Pasco on Feb. 8 to take them on.

“We always play them pretty tough. We played them two years ago in the district semis and took them to penalty kicks.” Koleduk said. “We owe Pasco a little payback,” he added.

Koleduk is in his fourth year at Sunlake. Prior to Sunlake, he was head
coach of Gulf High School in New Port Richey. Before that, he coached at NAIA school Cincinnati Christian for two seasons; compiling a 42-5 record. He is a Pasco County guy, having attended Saint Leo College and was an All-American soccer player there. He even played professionally for eight years.

Assistant Coach Richard Rodriguez, coaches the JV soccer squad is an integral part of the varsity team.

Together they helm a Seahawks team that is improving as the year goes on.

Senior forward, Jordan Landry has 50 goals on the year and has long since eclipsed the career 100-goal mark. He currently stands at 113 goals on the year and could add to that total Tuesday night. Sophomore midfielder, Connor Giboy is the basketball equivalent of a point guard and has 14 goals himself to go along with an astounding 26 assists.

Keeper David Danahy is having a tremendous year as well. He’ s amassed 14 shutouts on the year and has a 0.8 goals per game average.

They are also a young team, fielding only two seniors in the starting lineup compared with four freshmen.

They will take their momentum to Dade City Tuesday night and try to force their way past another soccer giant in the Pasco Pirates. If they get though that game, they will face the winner of Tavares and Celebration, two Orlando-area teams. They will likely have to travel but it would be a record-setter for the school to make the regional finals.

Tonight's game gets under way at 7 p.m. at Pasco High School,36850 State Road 52 in Dade City.