TAMPA — Nastasia Asgedom and Charsley Greiwe scored second-half goals as Plant beat Newsome 2-0 in the Class 5A, District 7 girls soccer final Saturday.
Plant advances to the region quarterfinals at 7 p.m. Wednesday against visiting Palm Harbor University. Newsome plays at East Lake.
Plant's breakthrough goal came when senior Caroline Bado played the ball in to junior Abby Sanchez who sent it across to Asgedom, who banged it into the keeper and cleaned up the rebound in the 54th minute.
As the nearby fireworks show from the Children's Gasparilla Parade reached its climax, Bado again sent the ball into the 18-yard box, where Sanchez tipped it to senior Greiwe, who put it in the opposite corner of the net.
"It was a grand finale for that second goal, a South Tampa extra," Panthers coach Pamela Smith said.
Greiwe had pressured the left side of the Wolves defense all night.
"They (Newsome) did a good job of stopping us (on offense)," Greiwe said. "They really made it difficult."
Newsome senior Taylor Decaire marked Plant's Bado relentlessly for possession and position.
"It's a tough battle every time you go up for a header against her (Decaire)," Bado said. "She's a tough competitor."
The Panthers still never let up. After the first score, they refused to sit back, pounding away at Newsome most of the second half. The Panthers outshot the Wolves 12-9.
"You got to keep pushing," Smith said. "We could have had a third or fourth goal there at the end."
Plant continued to fire away even after the second goal and nearly scored a couple more times as Bado took a header off a free kick and Asgedom slipped away on another run but pushed her shot wide.