West Pasco high school boys district soccer preview

During the 2008-09 season, West Pasco boys prep soccer programs were standing on the rooftops screaming for any attention.

Class 6A boasted a gritty Mitchell High squad that advanced to the regional semifinals. River Ridge in 5A was a district runner up and nearly moved on to the playoff's second round until a heartbreaking, double-overtime regional quarterfinals loss to Freedom ended things prematurely.

Then there was Class 4A. Hudson and senior scoring machine Scotty Combs put together a 19-win season that included wins over Orlando Bishop Moore and Celebration during a run to the regional finals. Overlooked but not forgotten was the 14-3-5 Gulf team that missed out on the state tournament only because of the bad fortune of Hudson and Pasco happening to be regional powerhouses.

Oh, the memories.

The 2009-10 season isn't exactly going for naught - anything but - it's just that the depth hasn't quite kept pace.

At first blush, Mitchell looks to be the only school staking a serious claim at making a deep postseason run.

The move from 6A to 4A has helped the Mustangs improve on last year's 14-12 regular season record to this year's dominant 18-2-3 mark.

An early season loss to new District 4A-7 rival Pasco represents Mitchell's lone in-county defeat and was later avenged with a 2-0 victory.

Fueling its regular season success is a roster spilling over with experience. With 21 upperclassmen, time is most certainly now for it to be the year of the Mustang.

Also appearing to benefit from playing down a class is River Ridge, in the new District 4A-8. The 10-4-2 Royal Knights will enter next week's tournament as the No. 2 seed, behind Land O' Lakes. Three straight late-season losses in a row have tempered the hype surrounding River Ridge's prospects, but may also give them a toughened sense of motivation just at the right time.

Gulf enters district play in just about the same situation it found itself last year: the outside-shot No. 3 seed buried under two dominant teams.

While 9-9-0 isn't nearly as impressive as 14-3-5, Gulf is holding out hope that it can catch either Mitchell or Pasco off guard and sneak into the postseason for the first time since 2004.

At the time when all it takes is one game to change everything, crazier things have certainly happened.

Class 4A District 7 Tournament

As if they needed another advantage, Mitchell will play host to this seven-team field beginning with games on Tuesday at 4 p.m. Friday's championship match kicks off at 7.

Pasco actually comes in as the top seed because of a tie breaker, followed by Mitchell (2), Gulf (3), Wesley Chapel (4), Hudson (5), Ridgewood (6) and Anclote (7).

Class 4A District 8 Tournament

These nine teams will travel to Sunlake High to play games from Monday through Friday.

Everyone will give chase to top-seeded Land O' Lakes. River Ridge, Citrus and Wiregrass Ranch represent the Gators' biggest threats.