GIRLS' SOCCER | CLASS 6A SEMIFINAL
Shutout sends Douglas girls' soccer team back to state final game
By MIKE PHILLIPS
mphillips@MiamiHerald.com
TAMPA -- No GPS, no guide dogs, no bread crumbs, no maps or directions.
Not for the Douglas girls' soccer team.
They know the way to the state title game better than anyone. Douglas' footprints are all over that trail.
They planted some fresh ones there Wednesday afternoon and Kelsey Wys planted her name in the record book with a 2-0 victory over Miami Springs in the Class 6A state semifinals at Pepin Stadium.
Now the players at Miami Springs know what 21 other teams know: You can't get anything past Wys.
She's that good, that savvy -- and just that stingy.
That's why Wys is the best goalkeeper to ever come out of Broward County, and one shutout away from making the claim of being the best in state history.
Wys tied the state record with shutout No. 22 on Wednesday and can break it Thursday night against Melbourne in the title game.
''It's awesome,'' she said of tying the record. ``It's not something I realized at the beginning of the season. It's good, because if I get that goal it means my team is winning.''
Wys, an All-American who plays for the USA Under-18 team, will be playing her final game for Douglas.
She is headed for Florida State. Springs' Abby Carr, the top player in Miami-Dade, also signed with FSU.
After watching Wys save everything, Carr was asked what she thought of the Douglas goalkeeper.
''Let me put it this way,'' Carr said. ``I'm happy she will be on my team at Florida State.''
Wys made two spectacular saves -- diving to her right with a one-handed save in the 18th minute, and diving to her left to steal a goal from Springs midway in the second half.
Douglas couldn't wait to get back to the final four and scored both goals in the first 1:33 of the game.
It took 50 seconds for Jen Nardone to slap a goal into the right corner for a 1-0 lead, and Kelsey Allphin followed that with a slick header 43 seconds later.
Two goals look like 20 with Wys in the net.
''When you get a lead like that and you have a goalkeeper at the level of Kelsey, it changes your posture. It changes the game,'' Douglas coach Stu Katz said.
It never changed Douglas' course. This will be the seventh trip to the title game in the past eight years. Douglas was second in 2002, then won five in a row before missing the dance last season when Cooper City shocked the Eagles in the first round game -- a game Wys missed.
''It means a lot to get back,'' said Allphin, who scored her 27th goal and fourth in the playoffs.
Allphin was leaping for joy two weeks ago when Douglas avenged the loss to Cooper City. There was no big celebration Wednesday.
''[Thursday], we will go crazy, hopefully,'' said Katz, who is in his first year.
He could get his Thursday.
It would be No. 1 for Katz, No. 6 for the school, and a shutout would be No. 23 and a record for Wys.
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