VALRICO – Bloomingdale came into Friday’s Class 4A, District 7 showdown against Durant hoping to seize control of the district

Durant, Bloomingdale tie again 2-2

VALRICO – Bloomingdale came into Friday’s Class 4A, District 7 showdown against Durant hoping to seize control of the district.

Instead, the Bulls barely escaped with a 2-2 tie, leaving the district picture muddy as ever.

"This is what I was afraid of,’’ Bulls coach Susan Peet said. "The same thing happened the last time we played. Durant is a solid team. We both had our chances tonight but neither could capitalize.’’

Durant (11-1-3) gave Bloomingdale the only other blemish on its otherwise perfect record in a 1-1 tie in November.

"It seemed like each team dominated for about 20 minutes at a time tonight,’’ Durant midfielder Kellie Evans said.

Evans opened the scoring in the 15^th minute when she floated a free kick from the right side into the upper corner of the net.

Bloomingdale equalized a minute later when Kim Martins carried the ball to the baseline, lost it briefly to a defender, gained it back, and crossed to a streaking Lyndrea Sutherland for the finish.

In the second half, Evans tested Bulls goalie Allison Gilman again with a hard free kick from outside. Gilman couldn’t handle it, and the ball was touched several times in the goal box before ricocheting in off a Bloomingdale defender.

Due to Durant’s offensive pressure, Bloomingdale had few chances in the second half until Ashley Quaid had a breakaway was taken down from behind by Melissa Lehmann.

Lehmann received a red card, forcing the Cougars to play a man down for the final 16 minutes.

With five minutes to play, Martins sent in a hard corner kick that deflected off several players before Quaid was able to get a foot on it and put it away.

"I thought we controlled the second half until the red card, and even then we were doing pretty well until that corner kick,’’ Durant coach Dick Scheffield said.

-- Jeremy Rasmussen