Braden River High sophomore Matthew Bruton medals at Misty Creek

SARASOTA -- It wasn't anything extraordinary to Matthew Bruton.

But the Braden River sophomore's 1-under par 71 was the only sub-par round in Monday's Class 3A-District 14 boys golf tournament at Misty Creek Country Club in Sarasota.

It also served as his best round this season, and it assured him of earning his first career berth into next week's Region 5 tournament at Heritage Oaks, which is nearby Misty Creek.

"I just tried to minimize my errors," Bruton said. "I really enjoyed it. I tried to have fun (Monday). That was my goal. Mission accomplished."

Braden River didn't advance as a team, finishing fourth in the eight-team district with a 320 total.

The top three teams advanced to next week's region tourney, while the top three individuals not on a qualifying team also progressed.

Sarasota Riverview (307), Lakewood Ranch (310) and Venice (313) advanced as teams.

Bruton, who did his damage with birdies on Nos. 1, 8 and 10, took medalist honors by two shots over Riverview's Eric Souchak.

Not bad for a golfer that only started getting serious with the game until his 8th grade year at Haile Middle School, because they had a team there.

Utilizing a stay-in-the-moment attitude, Bruton remained focused for his round and avoided the many pitfalls that surround Misty Creek's narrow layout. He also didn't show any fear by hitting 13 drivers out of the 14 par-4 and par-5s.

"I just tried to focus on position a little bit," Bruton said.

Teammate Brandon Pozzie snagged the last individual qualifying berth following an 81 by one over fellow Pirate Bobby Gagnon and North Port's Zack Kubik.

Manatee's Richard Bennett (76) finished fifth overall through a scorecard tiebreaker for the other individual qualifying berth.

Meanwhile, Lakewood Ranch's consecutive district championship streak was snapped at five. The Mustangs entered as winners of the Donald Ross Memorial and Manatee County Championship, and first-year head coach Jon Bullas set a mini-goal of winning the three tournaments as a challenge for his team.

The Mustangs were just a touch off, and Bullas said he'll get each player sorted on their specific area over the next week before the region tourney commences.

"One of them is struggling with his putting, one is struggling with his tee shots," Bullas said. "So it's going to be a specific week to each kid."

It was also an emotionally-charged round for the players after two classmates were killed in an accident over the weekend.

"(Monday), we said, 'Let's do it for these guys,'" Bullas said. "There's nothing worse, is there? The guys wanted to win it for them and they came very close."

Hunter Logan paced Lakewood Ranch with a 75, while Louis DelFabro (77), Drew Angelo (78), Billy Herten (80) and Mike Wijas (80) rounded out the Mustangs.

Standing in the Mustangs' way this year was Riverview, who rallied for the title despite not having their top player's score counting.

Jeremy Perna, the Rams No. 1, was disqualified after hitting off the wrong tee on the 17th hole and letting out an expletive outburst.

"We DQ'ed him, Riverview High. Nobody else," said Rams head coach John Sprague, whose team won their fourth tournament title this season. "The coaches at Riverview DQ'ed him. It was reported to us, and we immediately drove up and DQ'ed him."

Once the top teams finished, Perna apologized to everyone for his behavior in a prepared speech on his phone.

"He's pretty remorseful about it," Sprague said. "Every kid that competes in this game, sometimes they use profanity and it's not accepted. He realizes it. He would have been one of the least I would have thought would have done it."

Manatee finished fifth as a team with a 342 total.

Palmetto was one of two teams, with North Port, that did not field enough players for a team score.

This story was originally published October 12, 2015 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Braden River High sophomore Matthew Bruton medals at Misty Creek ."