When a seventh-seed and a 10th-seed meet in the opening round of a postseason tournament anything can happen, with a few surprises thrown in.

No. 7 Ida Baker came out very sluggish Monday night in the boys’ District 4A-11 soccer tournament at Cape Coral’s Dave Warkentin Field, but worked together enough to come away with a 3-0 victory over No. 10 Lemon Bay.

Senior Daniel Sharkey scored the Bulldogs’ first two goals – one in each half – and junior Mike Arenz added the exclamation point with five minutes remaining.

“We did not play our game,” said Bulldogs coach Doug Palow. “Our defense played pretty good and shut down any attack they had.”

With most of the play in the middle of the field early on, the Bulldogs didn’t find the net until the 25th minute.

Senior Nick Presti sent a lead pass over the defense in an area where Sharkey could beat a defender to the ball and bounce it past the keeper for the initial score.

The 1-0 lead stood at halftime with the Bulldogs owning a 7-1 advantage in shots on goal and 14-3 overall.

The second half was a carbon copy of the first. It wasn’t until the 30th minute that Presti again sent a long lead pass that Sharkey caught up to as the keeper was charging to the ball. About in the middle of the box, Sharkey headed the ball over the keeper and partially collided with him while Lemon Bay defenders tried in vain to get to the ball before it went into the net.

Five minutes later, the Bulldogs took a corner kick on the left wing. Junior Jed Cicoria dribbled toward the middle and sent a pass to the center where Arenz blasted it into the net.

“We had plenty of opportunities,” said Palow. “We played sluggish for 80 minutes tonight, but we walked out with a shutout (win) and move on.”

The Bulldogs finished with a 27-9 advantage in shots, 12-5 in shots on goal.

The Bulldogs (11-10-1) advance to the tournament quarterfinal round to face No. 2 seed Cape Coral at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

“We will have to pick up the pace against Cape,” said Palow. “We will have to apply more pressure and more communication. Anything can happen, that’s why we play the games.”