LAKELAND — McKeel entered the season having lost leading scorer Gavin Santos to graduation. The loss of offensive production got even worse when second-leading scorer Jacob DeJesus sustained a season-ending at the beginning of the season.
That’s where Calvin Steele comes in. The senior forward has emerged as the Wildcats leading scorer and scored three goals in the Wildcats’ 5-0 win over Tampa Chamberlain on Monday night at McKeel.
McKeel will play host to Tampa King in the championship match at 7 pm on Wednesday.
Two of Steele’s goals came in the first half when he staked McKeel to a 2-0 lead. Jahir Villasenor and Zane Chisolm also scored in the first half.
Steele added his final goal midway through the second half. He now has 16 goals in 12 matches. As a team, McKeel has 24 goals.
“He’s been fantastic all year,” Adams said. “In big games, he scores. He’s been our leading goal scorer this year. It’s been remarkable.”
This was Steele’s third three-goal game of the season.
“Calvin has really stepped up,” Adams said. “He has improved a lot. He’s scoring goals and we love it, big-time goals too.”
The four-goal lead allowed Adams to play a lot of players and go deep into his bench in the second half.
“We’ve been defending really well lately, since early December, so I felt the game was comfortable and we just tried to get other players on,” Adams said. “It’s going to be tougher going forward so it was one last chance to get kids who maybe don’t get to play as much and develop some of the younger kids.”
5A-6: Gateway 1, Auburndale 0
Gateway scored in the first half and defeated Auburndale in the 5A-6 semifinals. The loss likely ends the season for the Bloodhounds (10-8-3), who entered the tournament ranked No. 9 in the region and is unlikely to move up.