ANNA MARIA – To close out the winter 2024 sports season at The Center of Anna Maria Island, the adult indoor soccer players went into round two of the playoffs last Wednesday knowing that if they won, they would advance to the championship game in only a few very short minutes.
In the first game of the night, second-ranked team Pool America lost to the Sato Real Estate team 9-5. Coming into the night as the third seed, Sato Real Estate was ready to play off of the win against Slim’s Place the week prior.
Pool America had a bye in round one playoff action.
Team Bucky Construction faced the same fate in the semifinal round against ServisFirst Bank. Fourth-ranked team Servis beat team Mi-Box to earn their round two seat. Top-ranked Bucky Construction had the week to rest.
The week off for Pool America and Bucky Construction seemed to work as a disadvantage for the two top-ranked teams. ServisFirst Bank’s win matched them up against Sato Real Estate in the final indoor soccer game of the season.
Having the apparent advantage of playing the first game of the night, Sato Real Estate led the championship game going into halftime 3-2. As the game clock ticked, the fatigue of playing back-to-back games started to take its toll on team ServisFirst Bank.
Team captain Josh Sato protected his team’s goal for the duration of the match, with 14 recorded saves. Servis shared the goalkeeping duties between Scott Cooper and Robert Fellowes. Cooper finished with three stops, while Fellowes put three saves in the game stats.
The game’s 15 points came off the boots of Sato Real Estate’s Ted Hurst and Nate Welch, scoring four and three goals, respectively, as well as two goals for each of the ServisFirst Bank scorers Nate Stotler, Luca Vecchio and Fellowes.
James Noblett and Sato each added a single point for the Sato Real Estate team, contributing to the team’s solid win.
Team Sato Real Estate progressively widened its lead with the final whistle blowing to a 9-6 win for the slightly favored squad. As the indoor soccer season ends, the play on the outdoor pitch starts with spring adult co-ed and youth soccer on the Island.
SUN SCOREBOARD
MARCH 27
ADULT CO-ED INDOOR SOCCER – SEMIFINAL GAMES
#3 Sato Real Estate 9
#2 Pool America 5
#4 ServisFirst Bank 8
#1 Bucky Construction 7
ADULT CO-ED INDOOR SOCCER – CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
#3 Sato Real Estate 9
#4 ServisFirst Bank 6
MARCH 28
ADULT CO-ED SOCCER – WEEK 1
Pool America 6
Language Services Association 1
Sato Real Estate 9
Diamond Turf 1
Ross Built Custom Homes 1
Solid Rock Construction 1
Salty Printing 5
Moss Builders 0
