TAMPA — Despite missing six starters to injury or club obligations, Newsome (9-4-1) hung with heavily favored Steinbrenner on Friday — until midway through the second half, when the floodgates opened in a 4-0 Warriors win.
That marked the first of four games in Friday night’s Berkeley Invitational. The host Buccaneers played the tightest match, winning a 2-1 (5-4) shootout with Hillsborough on an adjacent field.
Later, Jesuit defeated Bloomingdale 5-0 and Palmetto beat Auburndale by the same margin.
“We held them off as long as we could,” said Newsome coach Allen Ware, who won his 200th career game Thursday against Wharton, coached by his brother Scott.
David McGee converted Michael Connell’s crossing pass from the left side to give Steinbrenner a 1-0 lead in the 57th minute. That started a string of four goals over 20 minutes.
“It just took us that long to break through,” Steinbrenner coach Chad Ebright said. “We made some small adjustments and that took care of the second half.”
Connell had a hand in the next two goals, getting an assist on a corner kick headed into the net by Joshua Rodriguez and bending in a corner kick from the right side that banked in off the far post. Austin Labban closed the scoring in the 77th minute, taking a feed from Blake Wilson and dribbling through three defenders before finding the back of the net.
Steinbrenner (10-1-1) outshot Newsome 12-1 with goalkeeper Christian Knight earning the shutout behind a solid defense.
'Hillsborough (5-6-1) took a 1-0 halftime lead on Blake Rehl’s goal off a pass from Matia Marchi, but Berkeley Prep (4-5-3) tied it on Jeff Guttentag’s second-half goal off a feed from Lance Esposito during a goalmouth scramble.
By tournament rules there was no overtime, so the outcome was decided by a shootout. The Bucs got goals from Warren Backman, Esposito, Andrew Kenny, Guttentag and Quinton Kauchick.
Only four players — Marchi, Rehl, Gabriel Mantini and Alejandro Tovar — scored for Hillsborough, the difference being Ben Milliken’s save on a high shot by Jean Rony Baptiste.
Jesuit (8-2-2) got a hat trick from Jacob Vila in its shutout of Bloomingdale (6-6-2). Michael Conlon and Kurt Sierra also scored for the Tigers.