Gulliver’s Cosme Salas is the Miami-Dade 4A-2A Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year
Cosme Salas’ wellrounded, balanced style of play embodies so much of what makes Gulliver Prep a perennial boys’ soccer powerhouse. Sure, the midfielder scores and assists, but his most important work doesn’t usually show up on the score sheet.
Instead, Salas’ greatness shows up in Gulliver’s results and those results were as good as ever for the Raiders. Gulliver won a ninth state championship, went undefeated and allowed just seven goals all season. Salas, the Raiders’ engine on both ends of the field, is now the Miami Herald’s Miami-Dade County Boys’ Soccer Player of the Year for Classes 4A-2A for the second straight season after leading Gulliver to back-to-back state titles.
“I’m very proud of how our team played, and our senior class since the sixth grade,” Salas said. “We developed a real brotherhood and I’m really proud to be able to lead that team as a captain. Going to college, as a state champion is amazing.”
The senior led the
Raiders with 11 goals and also dished out four assists, and his last one came in his last game of high school, setting up All-County defender Jacob Lombard for the lone goal in the Raiders’ 1-0 win against Orlando Bishop Moore in the
Class 4A championship.
Gulliver’s nine state titles are tied for the most in Florida High School Athletic Association history and Salas is one of the few Raiders with multiple rings.
“Last year we were coming off a devastating loss but we kept on pushing and pushing and ended up winning,” Salas said. “This year we went undefeated so we had a target on our backs every game. We had to keep playing knowing they were going to come at us with everything. But we stayed humble and stayed hungry.”
As good as Salas is as a soccer player, his future is actually in football, though. Salas was an excellent kicker throughout his career in Pinecrest and is now headed to Duke to kick for the Blue Devils. In football, Salas went 14 of 20 on field goals in his two years as a starting specialist and didn’t miss an extra point.