Oviedo (25-3-1) defeated Vero Beach (22-4-2) on penalty kicks 3-2 in the Class 6A title game at the University of Tampa’s Pepin Stadium.

The match was as close as the final score would indicate.

Sarah Buckley was the first to connect on a penalty kick for Oviedo, but the Lions trailed 2-1 with each team down to its final two attempts.

Meagan Borger and Morgan Campbell converted for the Lions from there. But it ultimately came down to freshman goalkeeper Lindsay Preston, who dove to her left to make the final save of the game.

“She’s a great keeper,” Campbell said of Preston afterwards. “She’s been practicing those PK’s all season. She’s been diving left and right and saving them the whole time, so I believed in her.”

Oviedo trailed 1-0 when Vero Beach got a goal with 26 minutes remaining in the first half. And despite coming close to repeatedly tying things up, the Lions would not do so until just 10 minutes were left in regulation.

That’s when Campbell took possession of the ball in the left side of the box and sent a shot to the back of the far corner of the net. The goal was all the Lions would need to extend the game.

Oviedo maintained its aggressive play from there, getting five more solid shots on goal before going back on the attack in the two overtime periods.

“It was just the will to win,” Oviedo coach Scott Waisanen said. “Our girls wanted it so bad, more than anything else.”

On Friday the Lions earned a 2-1 win over Miami Palmetto to advance to the championship when Katie O’ Kennedy scored with only seconds to spare in double overtime. Campbell also scored on a free kick earlier in the match.

– (email JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com and follow at Facebook or @OrlandoSportsJC ) –

Three former UCF Knights – Josh Sitton, Atari Bigby and Michael Greco – will continue their pursuit of the Vince Lombardi Trophy on Sunday when the Green Bay Packers face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

Sitton and Bigby are expected to suit up for the Packers, becoming the fifth and sixth Knights to play in a Super Bowl. They’ll join Shawn Jefferson (Super Bowl XXIX and XXXI), Mike Gruttadauria (XXXIV), Cornell Green (XXXVII) and Asante Samuel (XXXVIII, XXXIX and XLII). Those players are a combined 4-3 in previous Super Bowl appearances for UCF alumni.

The final wild-card selection in the NFC this season, the Packers have won five straight games to advance to their fifth Super Bowl and first since Super Bowl XXXII when they fell to John Elway and the Denver Broncos. Each of the Packers’ three playoff wins have come on the road as Green Bay knocked off rival Chicago 21-14 in the NFC Championship Game on Jan. 23 at Soldier Field, the top-seeded Atlanta Falcons 48-21 in the Divisional round at the Georgia Dome and NFC East-champion Philadelphia 21-16 in a wild card matchup at Lincoln Financial Field.

Sitton has started in all three playoff games at right guard. Against the Bears, he helped Green Bay to 356 yards of total offense to claim the George Halas Trophy. The Packer offense has been strong in the playoffs, including a franchise playoff record 48 points scored against Atlanta. Sitton helped pave the way for 28 first downs, 442 yards of total offense and a remarkable 38:19 time of possession on the road against the top-seeded Falcons. Sitton’s contributions followed another strong showing for the offensive line in the wild card round where Packer tailback James Starks set a franchise rookie playoff record with his 123 rushing yards.

During several recent interviews while accepting the NFL’s Rookie of the Year award, Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh called Sitton the best guard he faced all year.

Bigby was a game day inactive in both the Divisional and wild card rounds due to a groin injury but was back in the Packer lineup for the NFC Championship Game, contributing to Green Bay’s win with his participation on the Packers’ coverage units. Facing NFC Pro Bowl returner Devin Hester, Green Bay allowed just 15.8 yards on its four kickoff returns and 9.5 yards on four punt returns as Hester never could get free.

The postseason run continues a great regular season for Sitton, who won the fan vote to start at guard for the NFC in the Pro Bowl but ultimately didn’t earn a spot on the team. He was selected as an alternate for the showcase event. Sitton has started every game for Green Bay this year. Bigby was a starter for Green Bay at safety in 2009 but was hampered by injuries for much of this season. Including the playoffs, he has made six tackles and appeared in five games, in which the Packers went 4-1 with the lone loss coming at New England.

Greco has had two stints with the Packers’ practice squad this year after being released by the New York Giants following preseason camp.

UCF KNIGHTS IN THE SUPER BOWL

– PLAYER             GAME           TEAM           RESULT        OPPONENT

Shawn Jefferson – XXIX – San Diego Chargers – Lost – San Francisco 49ers

Shawn Jefferson – XXXI – New England Patriots – Lost – Green Bay Packers

Mike Gruttadauria – XXXIV – St. Louis Rams – Won – Tennessee Titans

Cornell Green – XXXVII – Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Won – Oakland Raiders

Asante Samuel – XXXVIII – New England Patriots – Won – Carolina Panthers

Asante Samuel – XXXIX – New England Patriots – Won – Philadelphia Eagles

Asante Samuel – XLII – New England Patriots – Lost – New York Giants

Note: Charles Lee was on Tampa Bay’s injured reserve list for Super Bowl XXXVII and Michael Greco will be on Green Bay’s practice squad for Super Bowl XLV.

– (email JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com and follow at Facebook or @OrlandoSportsJC ) –

The Knights are off to an 8-6 start overall after opening the Conference USA portion of the schedule with an 81-68 win against Rice (8-7, 0-1 in C-USA). UCF trailed 45-44 with less than 14 minutes to play but got the win by forcing the Owls into 20 turnovers and hitting 24-of-37 shots from the foul line.

D’Nay Daniels and Aisha Patrick turned in identical nights on the score sheet as they both led the team with 21 points and eight rebounds. Chelsie Wiley finished with 16 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two steals while Jelisa Caldwell had nine points, five rebounds and five steals on the night.

UCF returns to the court on Sunday at 2 p.m. against Southern Miss at UCF Arena. Another home game follows against UAB on Thursday at 7 p.m.

Wiley leads the team in scoring with 14.9 points per game. Daniels is averaging 14.1 points on the season and is tops on the team in field goal percentage (.514) on 73-of-142 attempts. Patrick leads the team in rebounds with 8 per game, assists at 4 per game, and steals at 2.3 per game.

– (email JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com and follow at Facebook or @OrlandoSportsJC ) –

After beginning a 40-year coaching career in Indiana, Kershner moved to Florida in 1980 where he built upon a 761-329 record during coaching stops at Kissimmee Osceola, Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce Westwood. He is now 314-104 at Oviedo since taking over there in 1996.

Kershner is one of six coaches in Florida’s high school boys basketball history to win 700 games. The late Don Wallen, who won 219 games in Kentucky, retired from Stuart Martin County in 1989 with a 760-192 mark.

The record was tied last week when Oviedo defeated Bartow at the Great Florida Shootout in Kissimmee, the very tournament Kershner originated in 1981 after taking over at Osceola. He led the Kowboys to its only state title in 1983 during a 37-0 season.

In a twist of irony, the Lions had a chance to give Kershner the state record the very next day against his former team, but were bounced from the tournament by Osceola 70-59 in the consolation semifinal.

With the attention focused squarely on the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame coach entering the season, a relatively young Oviedo team has seemingly weathered the added pressure.

“I have never said anything about it to them,” acknowledged Kershner after tying the record. “I’m proud of them and their improvement and have been just trying to get them better.”

With Oviedo now 9-6 on the year, Kershner would prefer to quietly add to his win total from here on out.

“Everybody else talks about it but me,” he said of the milestone. “I’ve probably been asked about it 50 times. It’s just something that you’ve got to go through and I’m just blessed to be able to answer it.”

– (email JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com and follow at Facebook or @OrlandoSportsJC ) –

Tuskers running back Dominic Rhodes rushed for 111 yards Friday night. (Photo by Scott McCall)

Sports fans had little trouble finding something worthwhile to do with their time on Friday night.

The Orlando Magic hosted New Jersey at the new Amway Center. The Florida Tuskers were caught up in a do-or-die regular season matchup at the Citrus Bowl. Then there was the UCF Knights football team on the road against Houston on ESPN2 while the women’s soccer team hosted the conference tournament semifinals. The men’s soccer team at Rollins College was also involved in a conference semifinal match, in Miami Shores. And it wouldn’t be a Friday night in November without crucial high school football games on the schedule.

While we recover over the weekend, let’s take a quick look back at the busy Friday night that was…

–– High School Football ––

The Florida High School football postseason picture got much clearer on Friday as district titles were won and lost throughout the area.

In the Class 4A-7 title game Edgewater ended the undefeated season for East River 51-13… Olympia came from behind to beat East Ridge 31-24 to finish as Class 6A-5 runners-up behind Apopka… Lake Brantley won 22-20 over Lake Mary to finish as runners-up in Class 6A-3 behind Seminole… Timber Creek won 35-14 over University to finish as runners-up in Class 6A-4 behind Winter Park… With Dr. Phillips having already wrapped up the Class 6A-6 title, Freedom, Oak Ridge and Boone stayed alive for the No. 2 spot. They will decide who gets it on Monday in a tiebreaker… Three teams are still alive for the top two spots in Class 5A-3 as Oviedo, Hagerty and Winter Springs also forced a tiebreaker…

District champs and runners-up advance to playoffs. A complete list of local district standings is available at Varsity Sports. Visit WFTV Channel 9 and Bright House Sports Network for more high school football coverage.

But give it to me straight high school football fans, is there a single team in the state that can mess with the Panthers at Dr. Phillips? Here’s hoping we get to see a postseason matchup between DP and Winter Park, the two unbeaten 6A teams in Orange County.

–– Rollins Men’s Soccer ––

The Tars finished in a tie with Barry at 6-1-1 in the Sunshine State Conference this season but were bounced a day early from the league tournament.

As the No. 2 seed, Rollins was upset on Friday by No. 3 Florida Tech in a match that came down to penalty kicks. A purely miserable way to go out. What makes it worse for the local team is that Stephen Wright put Rollins ahead with a goal in the 25th minute before Florida Tech evened things up in the 53rd minute. And that was while the winning team was playing a man down in the second half. Rollins lost the shootout 3-0.

Surprisingly, Barry was also upset in the semifinals 2-1 by No. 4 Tampa.

Both the men’s and women’s soccer programs at Rollins College have been ranked in the Top-10 over the course of the past month. They find out Monday night if they did enough over the regular season to be invited to the NCAA Division II Soccer Championships.

–– UCF Women’s Soccer ––

Hosting a conference tournament for the first time since 2001, the No. 23 UCF women’s soccer team is in position to make this gathering a memorable one.

Following a 2-0 win over SMU in the Conference USA semis on Friday, UCF is now one victory away from winning its first tourney title. Standing in their way, though, is three-time defending champion Memphis. The title game goes down on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the UCF Soccer Complex. The Knights lost to Memphis in the conference finals in 2007 and 2009.

Senior Kim Newsome scored a goal in the opening minutes of the semifinal match while sophomore Nicolette Radovcic added another in the 29th minute for the Knights.

UCF has won the regular season title four of the past six years and are the No. 1 seed in the field. No. 2 Memphis advanced by defeating Houston 1-0. A loss for the Knights on Sunday would be the equivalent of, say, the football team losing those games to N.C. State and Kansas State earlier this season.

The game will feature C-USA Offensive Player of the Year Tishia Jewell of UCF along with C-USA Defensive Player of the Year Lizzy Simonin and C-USA Midfielder of the Year Vendula Strnadova from Memphis.

–– UCF Football ––

Here’s hoping Top-25 poll voters tuned in for some college football Friday night on ESPN2. The UCF football team made it 11-straight C-USA wins as they improved to 7-2 overall (5-0 in C-USA) with a 40-33 win on the road against Houston.

The win strengthens UCF chances of hosting the conference title game next month. The Knights led by 17 points until the Cougars took a 24-23 lead in the third quarter. UCF would rally, though, then get a defensive stand in the final moments to pull out the win despite giving up 532 total yards to Houston.

UCF quarterback Jeff Godfrey continued his phenomenal freshman season by throwing for 294 yards and two touchdowns on 15 of 19 attempts, while also rushing for 105 yards and another score.

Now, I was one of those guys sticking up for injured quarterback Rob Calabrese earlier in the season, when UCF fans were continuously giving him hell instead of placing blame where it was do – on the offensive line. But that stuff aside, this Godfrey kid is kind of good.

Josh Linam finished with staggering 17 tackles while Bruce Miller (4 tackles) and David Williams (2 tackles) each intercepted passes. Miller took his interception back for a touchdown, for the second time this season, in the first quarter.

UCF hosts Southern Miss (5-2, 2-2) on Saturday at noon in the final regular-season home game at Bright House Networks Stadium. The Knights could be right back there, following two road games to close out the regular season, as hosts of the C-USA title game Dec. 4 against either Houston or SMU.

And for the record, I’m with local columnist Mike Bianchi when it comes to the possibility of UCF joining the Big East. It should either be all the programs getting in, or none at all.

–– Florida Tuskers ––

With backup quarterback Chris Greisen under center the United Football League’s Florida Tuskers kept its postseason hopes alive with a 31-14 win over the Omaha Nighthawks.

An announced crowd of 9,203 was on hand as Florida improved to 3-3 on the year. The Tuskers need wins over the final two weeks to advance to the UFL Championship Game for the second-straight time against Las Vegas.

Greisen, who made a name for himself in the Arena Football League, was taking cues from AFL Hall of Famer and Tuskers Coach Jay Gruden. On Friday he passed for 215 yards, two touchdowns and an interception on 23 of 31 attempts in his first processional outdoor start. Dominic Rhodes rushed for 111 yards and a touchdown on just 11 carries and Calvin Russell caught six passes for 61 yards and a score.

Patrick Chukwurah finished with two sacks and three tackles. Keiwan Ratliff and Darrius Vinnett each had six tackles. Ratliff also returned an interception back 29 yards for a touchdown.

The final home game of the season for the Tuskers is on Thursday night at the Citrus Bowl against the Hartford Colonials. If the recent trend holds up, there should be another crowd of less than 9,000 in the stands at that gigantic football playground downtown. With a fan base such as this it’s hard to imagine the Tuskers staying in town for too much longer.

–– Orlando Magic ––

Point guard Jameer Nelson suffered a sprained left ankle late in Friday night’s game against the New Jersey Nets at the Amway Center. Before leaving the game, Nelson went 7-for-12 from the field for 20 points and six assists. It was his best effort since the start of the season. He did not play on Saturday night in Charlotte.

Vince Carter finished with 19 points and five rebounds as Orlando won 105-90. Dwight Howard had another huge game as he scored 30 points and grabbed 16 rebounds while making 12 of 16 attempts from the free throw line to lead the way.

Game highlights and additional analysis available at NBA.com.

– (email JC@OrlandoSportsCentral.com or follow @OrlandoSportsJC and Carnahan Chronicles) –

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier, threats of violence kept him from playing in Central Florida.

Robinson also starred in one of Orlando’s biggest games ever – a 1949 exhibition that attracted a standing-room-only crowd at Carter Street Park, the home of the city’s Negro Leagues team.

Two generations later, Robinson’s historic achievements and struggles are chronicled in an upcoming exhibit at the University of Central Florida’s main library. The exhibit also features photographs and memorabilia from the Orlando All-Stars, which competed in the Negro Leagues throughout the 1940s and 1950s.

“Pride & Passion: The African American Baseball Experience” tells the story of African-American baseball players in the United States from the Civil War through the present, and it relates their experiences to the struggle for civil rights.

The exhibit will open Friday, March 5, and run through Thursday, April 15. Admission to the exhibit and several related lectures and discussions will be free.

“We had to have a certain amount of self-discipline to survive while traveling around to different cities under the ill winds of racism,” recalled Bob “Peach Head” Mitchell, one of four former Negro Leagues players who will visit UCF on March 19. “It’s very important for kids today to hear those stories.”

The UCF Libraries were selected as one of 50 nationwide sites for the “Pride & Passion” exhibit, which was organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and the American Library Association and funded through a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The traveling exhibit is based on a permanent exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. A portion of the exhibit is funded through a grant from the UCF Office of Diversity Initiatives.

To tell the story of Central Florida’s rich but often forgotten baseball history, UCF will display collections from partners such as the Sanford Museum, the Wells’Built Museum of African-American History and Orlando resident Carol Mundy.

The Central Florida connections include:

– Before Robinson played his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers, threats of violence forced the cancellation of a spring game in Sanford. A day game in DeLand was called off due to “malfunctioning lights.” Robinson was able to take the field in Daytona Beach, the spring home of the Dodgers, and the stadium there was renamed “Jackie Robinson Ballpark” in 1990.

– Sunday afternoon Negro League games were major social gatherings for African-Americans. Fans dressed up for the games, and players drove through the streets to promote the games. The Orlando All-Stars played at Carter Street Park because Tinker Field was reserved for whites.

For more information and a full schedule of events, visit UCF Library.

Come on in. Put down your bags. Make yourself at home for there is plenty of room right here at Orlando’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel of Pro Football.’

The other guests figured you’d be stopping by. We just hope you won’t be staying for too long. You see, they all envy what you attempted to accomplish over Thanksgiving weekend and are just as somber that things didn’t go as planned.

This one must really sting though, huh? Making it all the way to the inaugural United Football League championship game as an undefeated team at 6-0 only to come up short, 20-17, against the hometown Las Vegas Locomotives in overtime.

What makes it worse is the way you dominated the competition throughout the regular season under the leadership of former National Football League player and coach Jim Haslet, and the offensive play calling of former Arena Football League player and coach Jay Gruden.

You led the four-team UFL in total offense, first downs and takeaways while MVP Brooks Bollinger slung the ball around like he was the all-time quarterback in a flag football league.

And how were you rewarded for such a season? By having to travel cross-country to Sin City. The nerve of the UFL. I’m sure the Citrus Bowl had plenty of room for the handful of fans that may have been interested in such a showdown. At least the same 12,000 or so that made it out for each of your two home games downtown.

Not since the Orlando Panthers of the forgotten Continental Football League has a local football team won a league title of the outdoor football variety. And they did it twice between 1966-70.

Which brings us to why you’re here in the first place. Let me start by introducing you to the others.

Down this hall stays the Florida Blazers of the World Football League, who after entering the fourth quarter of the 1974 WFL World Bowl down 22-0 charged all the way back only to lose by one point. Imagine that. Which I’m sure you can. Only the Blazers would never see the start of the following season before vanishing into the history books.

A little further down to your right is where the Orlando Renegades of the battered United States Football League are shacked up. Quite a concept the USFL was, if only the Renegades were half as innovative. They had one 5-13 season in 1985 before “pro football” made yet another quick exit from town, along with the league.

But the sport returned (as it always does) in 1991 when the Orlando Thunder came on the scene as part of the startup World League of American Football. In their second season the Thunder managed to advance to the title game in 1992 only to fall 21-17 in the WLAF World Bowl before suddenly disappearing at its conclusion.

The Thunder are staying a bit further down the hall to your left, where you’ll also find our most recent occupant from the defunct XFL.

For a split second in 2001 it sounded like a good idea – Inviting pro wrestling fans to a football game and catering to their vises. It certainly worked for the Orlando Rage. That year they swept through the regular season with the best record in the league only to lose by a point in the first round of the postseason.

These has-beens have been here sulking and mingling together ever since.

And now it’s the Tuskers who have become another rotten slice of the good football championship-chasing life after falling just short of satisfying the title quench for local fans.

At least there’s a bright side. You have something none of these old washed-up local teams have, and that’s a chance to try it again in a league that is still up and running.

Well, at least for the time being.

– More Florida Tuskers Coverage –

- United Football League info at UFL Access

- Tuskers news and notes at Tusker House

- Video footage at UFL-Football

- Postgame stories at FanHouse

- Box score at UFL-Football

- More at Orlando Sports Central

During halftime of Saturday night’s UCF football game against the University of Buffalo, at Bright House Networks Stadium, the 1958 Bulls football team will be recognized for showing a rare form of unity back in the days of Civil Rights strife. That squad lost out on a chance to compete in the Tangerine Bowl against Florida State 51 years ago because two players on the roster were of African-American decent.

This came 11 years after Jackie Robinson was the first African American to play Major League Baseball and eight years before a Historically Black College would play a game at that same stadium for the first time ever.

Though many might scratch their heads at such an injustice, life in the South in the late-50s was still very much segregated both on and off the field. It would be another 10 years before school kids sat side-by-side in classrooms or even huddled together at sporting events in Orange County.

And another 50 years would go by before Buffalo would earn another bowl bid after winning the Mid-American Conference last year. It wasn’t until 1966 before Buffalo finally played a football game in Florida, or anywhere else in the South for that matter, when they traveled to take on Tampa that season.

In 1958 it wasn’t enough that Tangerine Bowl organizers from the Elks Lodge saw it fit to extend a bowl bid to Buffalo. The rules of the Orlando High School Athletics Association forbid interracial events from taking place at the downtown stadium they governed. That meant Willie Evans and the late Mike Wilson would have to stay home.

But instead, the Bulls banded together and turned down the bid. Then 50 long years unraveled in front of the program without a single chance to play in the postseason.

“A half century later Central Florida is a much different place than it was then,” said Orange County Mayor Richard Crotty, a 1972 UCF graduate. “We are the tourist capital of the world, entertaining people of every color and creed.”

Upon Crotty learning of the story, he got in touch with a member of UCF’s football staff which then set forth a chain of events that included reaching out to both universities, and Florida Citrus Sports, to help make the weekend’s honor possible.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge our past and celebrate the successes we’ve made since then,” said Crotty. “This is kind of a snapshot of where we have come from and the great advances we have made in our community.”

Those advances include the slow but steady crumbling of the walls of segregation, and hatred, based merely on the color of a person’s skin. Reminders of this are still present in the minds of tens of thousands who could attest to such obstacles today.

“From my playing high school and college football in the state of Florida during the 60s and 70s, and now as director of athletics at one of the state’s esteemed universities, I can certainly relate to the adversity these men feared, and appreciate one of the finest acts of unity ever in a sport,” said UCF Director of Athletics Keith Tribble.

“That’s what we teach in athletics. Their decision to not participate was the ultimate definition of ‘team’.”

Rekindling that brotherhood all these years later is perhaps the biggest honor for these former players.

“We appreciate the fact that there is interest in our story and that we are going to be honored at the game,” said Evans. “More importantly, it gives us an opportunity to get together as a team one more time and we are grateful for that.”

Among the 34 players from that squad expected to be on hand is Gerry Gergley, considered an early pioneer of UCF athletics. He had his hands in starting the school’s wrestling, golf and football programs and earned induction into the UCF Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.

“I worked at UCF since 1970, and there were so many times when we were playing football there (at the downtown stadium), I couldn’t help to think what could have been if we had the chance to play Florida State back in 1958,” said Gergley. “I know our whole team is so thankful to everyone who made this possible. It is unbelievable that this is happening.”

Perhaps what’s most unbelievable, and remarkable, is that a story such as this can survive as long as it has and be in a position to affect many more lives for many more generations to come.

More coverage of the 1958 Buffalo team:

– Eric Neel with Outside the Lines at ESPN

– Mike Bianchi commentary at Orlando Sentinel

– Erik Brady story at USA Today

– Alex Rubin and Stephen Marth at The Spectrum