Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Late goals lift Vero Beach
Indians face Cypress Bay in state semis
PARKLAND — When Phil Lamarre returned to his alma mater, Douglas High School, to coach the boys soccer team, he had hopes of doing something he had never done as a player there – reach the state’s biggest stage, the final four.
With five minutes remaining in Tuesday night’s Class 5A regional semifinal, it appeared the Eagles (16-3-5) were on their way, until visiting Vero Beach struck twice thanks to two long free kicks and escaped with a 2-1 victory.
“We knew watching the first half that they were dangerous on set plays and we had to match up on them,” said Lamarre, who was the school’s starting goalkeeper in 2006 when the Eagles fell 2-1 in overtime to Boca Raton in the regional final. It is the farthest the school has ever gone.
After Douglas junior Diego Hernandez gave the Eagles a 1-0 lead with 10:23 remaining in the game, the Indians (10-7-5) were able to tie the game on a header by junior forward Bayne Hagood in the 75th minute off a 45-yard free kick by Bennett Collins.
Just three minutes later, Collins served up another free kick that 6-foot-3 Dean Walker headed home to send the Indians to the state semifinal on Friday at Cypress Bay, who were 2-1 winners over Miami Beach.
“With a one goal lead with 10 minutes left, that’s all you can really ask for,” Lamarre said. “You have a one goal lead and you can’t close it out in the final minutes of the match, and you give up two, that obviously hurt. It was a good season for the guys and hopefully it is an experience they can build off of.”
Vero Beach, who had never advanced past the regional semifinals in school history, started slowly out of the gate going 2-6-4. Vero ended the season 8-1-1, including a 6-game win streak following Tuesday night’s win.
In the Class 1A regional final in Boca Raton, another former alumni and second year coach David Weil had the same aspirations, but his Boca Raton Christian Blazers suffered a similar fate.
Weil, who graduated from Boca Christian in 2011, guided his team to the postseason for the first time in school history. Weil led the team to its first ever district championship and regional wins over Somerset Canyons Academy and Trinity Christian.
The Blazers established a school record, 15 wins this year, but couldn’t crack the Vikings defense and junior forward Tanner Molony scored his team-leading 34th goal of the season with eight minutes remaining to send the team to the state semifinals to play the winner of the Palmer Trinity/Miami Country Day winner on Friday.
Lakeland Christian (19-3-2) lost in the Class 2A state final in 2006 and failed to make the playoffs last season when it went 8-8-5.
Boca Christian (15-4-4) entered the game undefeated at home this season at 9-0. The teams played on Jan. 6 in Lakeland where the Vikings defeated Boca Christian 5-4.
“This was an unbelievable run,” Weil said. “These young guys put it out every single day. You don’t have a team like this every day that has the heart, the intensity and the talent. There was never a moment that they didn’t keep fighting and today it showed.”