GREEN COVE SPRINGS - Two late goals by Isaac Espino sealed a 4-0 district semifinal win over Columbia for the Clay High Blue Devils soccer boys and put the team into their first district championship game in nearly a decade.

Clay advanced with the win to play home on Wednesday as the top seed against third-seed Tallahassee Rickards. Rickards (11-3) beat Lincoln 1-0 in their semifinal. Clay improved to 9-3-3 under coach Wale Leyumi in his fourth season.
"The team's intensity level never let up from start to finish and we were able to secure the win with the two late goals," said Leyumi. "We use a 'next five minutes' phrase that means when there is a break in the action; a timeout, a goal, substitution, we amp up our attack for that first five minutes to catch our opponent off guard."
With both teams rocketing up and down the field in the first 20 minutes of the contest with both having shots on goal either wide or off cross bars, Clay finally connected off a corner kick that senior Jerry Alcindor muscled in from the corner to put Clay on the scoreboard.
"He's a senior that just came out this year and the kids feed off his energy," said Leyumi. "He just charges down the field."
Next, senior Aidan Pinnix tapped in a scramble in front of the Columbia net to put Clay up 2-0 before Espino first hit a line shot directly in front of the net, then spun a curve ball that got mishandled and bounced across the goal line for goals three and four.
"He hit it just right, put some spin on it and caught their second goalie off guard," said Leyumi.