St. Thomas Aquinas boys soccer beats Reagan, advances to first regional final since 2011
Seven frustrating years of putting good talent on the field only to suffer early postseason exits came to an end for the St. Thomas Aquinas boys soccer team on Saturday night.
That’s when the Raiders, thanks to an early goal off a perfect set piece corner kick, hung on to defeat Ronald Reagan 1-0 in a Region 4-4A semifinal contest at Milander Stadium.
Not only did the win keep the Raiders unbeaten (21-0-4) but it means they are now into the regional final round for the first time since 2011, a year they won their last of five state titles under legendary coach Jobie Hughes.
Aquinas will host Fort Lauderdale in the Region 4-4A final on Wednesday at 7 p.m. at Brian Piccolo Stadium with a berth in the state final four on the line.
“We’ve got a good bunch of kids this season and it’s a group that we’ve managed to keep together for all four years,” said Aquinas head coach John Walsh. “The last six or seven years, that period of drought everyone talks about has been frustrating but a big reason has been we would bring a lot of these [kids] in as ninth and 10th graders and then watch them leave for the academies which would leave us perpetually young. We finally broke that trend with this group.”
The lone goal for the Raiders came in the 10th minute off a set piece when Spencer Mallion sent a perfect corner kick to the back post and Ian Tomancik was there to head it in the top left corner of the net.
“It was our second corner of the game and on the first one I couldn’t get into space so I decided to change it up and went back post instead of front and Spencer gave me a great ball,” said Tomancik. “It was a tough game. Reagan really started to put it on us once we got the lead. We had to do a lot of defensive work and at the end we were getting pressed pretty hard. We were just trying to keep a clean sheet and find a way out to kill the game off and we did it.”
Reagan (15-7-2), which was gunning for the program’s first ever regional final berth, might have had its best chance to even the game just five minutes after the Raiders took the lead.
Kerry Sarmiento beat the St. Thomas defense down the left side and found himself one on one with Raiders keeper A.J. Pierce, who made an incredible save, sticking his left leg out falling to the ground deflecting the ball away.
“A really huge win that means so much to us because we know about the history of this program,” said Tomancik, a senior who has endured many of the painful playoff losses. “Two national championships, five state championships, it was quite a legacy going on here and it’s kind of fallen off for the last six or seven years. And it was frustrating at school because all of these other sports have been taking all the state championships and we’ve kind of gotten pushed aside. But we want to change that this year. Maybe it’s our turn.”
Said Walsh: “Reagan is a heck of a team. They have a lot of skill, a lot of pace and pretty much gave us fits all night. They really fought. We would like to think our structure is playing defense and playing for set pieces and that’s how we got it done tonight.”