Lakeland Tropics 1–1 The Villages SC (a.e.t.) · The Villages SC win 8–7 on penalties
Ten rounds. Fifteen penalties. One save that settled it.
Danilo Seglio opened the scoring. Our left back made a powerful overlapping run deep into the Tropics box, had his first shot saved, and put the rebound away himself.
Lakeland lifted their tempo from there, pushed their full backs up, and Chase Hovious broke down the flank to find Raheem Taylor-Parkes inside the area for the equaliser.
It got scrappy after that. A fierce midfield battle, frustrations fraying, two cautions before the interval.
By the hour Lakeland looked spent and their midfield broke up. We stayed the more organised side without ever taking control of the middle of the pitch. 1–1 after ninety.
Extra time was theirs — 65% possession in both halves and the only three shots after the ninety. Neither side could find a winner.
Penalties.
Both opened well. Our second was saved. Then Jerfesson saved Lakeland's fourth and fifth — and stepped up to take our fifth himself, only for Joel Serrano to save it. On it went.
Both teams converted the next four. Josh Fawole, Felipe Pampolin, Nicholas Butler, Eric Brody, Kerry Da Costa and Vandyke Gyau all scored theirs.
Then Jerfesson saved again — a deft one, from Kazuki Kimura — and Sukrija Dudic stepped up with the match on it.
Bottom left corner.
8–7.
Jerfesson made three saves in that shootout. He was the hero of it, apart from the one he took himself.
And Sukrija Dudic was the man who finished it.
Second round: Tampa Bay Rowdies, May 14, in St. Petersburg.
A USL Championship side, two tiers above us, and the first professional team this club has ever faced — with a chance to do something nobody at this club has done yet.
