Westminster Christian, Fort Lauderdale boys’ soccer teams move into regional finals
Lucas Ruiz was starting to get a little frustrated.
While the Westminster Christian sophomore has been a key contributor this season, he felt like he was long overdue for a timely goal.
Ruiz picked the perfect time to end the drought Saturday night by tapping home the game-winner with 17 seconds left in regulation to cap a dramatic 3-2 comeback win for the Warriors over host Ransom Everglades in a Region 4-3A semifinal.
Westminster Christian (9-3-2) erased a 2-0 deficit over the final 19 minutes of the match and advanced to the regional finals for the first time since 2012, which also was the last time the Warriors made it to the state final four.
Ransom Everglades (13-2-5) had made it to the regional semifinals for the first time since winning the school’s lone state title in the sport in 2016.
Westminster will next play SLAM, a 1-0 winner on Saturday over Miami Country Day, at a site to be determined Tuesday night.
“I burst into tears when I scored,” Ruiz said. “We knew the game wasn’t over and we play until we see zeroes on the board. This team has haunted us. We just wanted to come back and beat them and we had the effort. We had the momentum and we were just telling each other to not concede.”
All season long the Warriors have relied on their core of seven seniors.
Although a sophomore scored the game-winner, it was the veterans who made the comeback possible.
Just after the second-half water break, senior Alex Brijbag scored on a penalty kick moments after drawing a foul inside the 18-yard box to cut Ransom’s lead to 2-1.
Seven minutes later on a counter off a corner kick, senior Jack Butler got just enough of a shot with his left foot to push the ball past the goal line to tie the match before Ransom keeper Martin Piedrahita could stop it.
Senior goalkeeper Johnny Gleason kept the game level with a pair of quality saves as Ransom charged up field three times coming close to taking the lead on a shot by junior Dillan Kaye that drifted just wide left of the goal.
Westminster countered in the closing seconds creating enough traffic in front of Ransom’s goal to give Ruiz a window to tap home the winner.
“They have a never-die attitude and that comes from our seniors,” Westminster Christian coach Josh Kirk said. “The PK draw was pure will and that’s all heart. These kids have bought in to what we’re about and that’s to play for each other.”
The Warriors had been eliminated in the regional quarterfinals by La Salle each of the past three seasons. They returned the favor in the district semifinal round this season. On Saturday, Westminster beat Ransom for the first time in the postseason during Kirk’s eight-year tenure as coach.
The Raiders took an early lead when Rylan Sadler delivered a pinpoint cross to senior captain Danny Mendoza, a University of Chicago signee. Less than two minutes into the second half, Ransom added another on a high-arching shot from 28 yards out by junior David Pulido that was just out of Westminster goalkeeper Johnny Gleason’s reach.
But Ransom was unable to tack on a key third goal nor come up with a go-ahead goal during the final 12 minutes of the match.
“[Westminster Christian] came out and played good soccer and it’s a great result for them,” Ransom coach Dave Villano said. “I felt down to the last minute we controlled the pace of the game and created more opportunities. But we knew they would be dangerous on the counter attack and they kept coming.”
FORT LAUDERDALE WINS
Two years ago, they were a talented group of seven sophomores that led their team on a historic run all the way to the state championship game.
On Saturday night, this same group of players from the Fort Lauderdale boys’ soccer team were now seniors and hoping not to be playing in their last game.
Thanks to senior team captain Aidan Binnion, one of that group of seven, it was not.
With just over eight minutes left and their Region 4-6A semifinal contest against St. Thomas Aquinas locked in a 1-1 tie, Binnion managed to get to a loose ball in the middle following a corner kick from Juan Collazo (another one of those seven) and knocked it home.
That proved to be the game winner for the Flying L’s as they hung on for the 2-1 victory at the Inter Miami FC Training Facility in Fort Lauderdale.
Fort Lauderdale, which improved to 8-1-2, now needs two more wins to get back to the final at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand where they suffered a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to Auburndale in 2019.
But their next hurdle will be a big one as they will have to travel to Miami-Dade County on Tuesday to take on perennial powerhouse Doral Academy in a Region 4-6A final at 7 p.m.
“We really feel like this is it, this is kind of our last chance,” Binnion said. “We were all sophomores two years ago when we came so close and then got upset in the first round of regionals last year [lost to eventual state runnerup South Broward] so we really feel like this is it, this is kind of our last chance. We feel like we have one of the best teams in the state but the window closes after this.”
Despite clobbering St. Thomas 5-0 in a district final two weeks ago, there would be no such lopsidedness on this night.
“I warned them all week and reminded them before the game to get that St. Thomas district game out of their heads,” said Fort Lauderdale head coach Mourinho Snipe. “John Walsh (St. Thomas head coach) is a good coach and knew that he would probably have his team feed off that lopsided loss and really have his kids fired up and ready to go and that’s exactly what happened. We scored two quick early goals in that game and it kind of knocked the wind out of them and everything snowballed from there but we knew they were a better team than that.”
Snipe was right as the Raiders (4-5-4) were every bit of his team’s equal all night long and stunned the L’s by grabbing a 1-0 lead in the game’s 21st minute.
That came when Miguel Restrepo fouled Diego Lara just outside the penalty box. Giulio Potenti then lined up for the resulting direct kick from 15 yards out and drilled a perfect shot just over the wall of players and just inside the top right corner of the net past diving Fort Lauderdale keeper James Medrano.
But the one goal deficit only lasted for just over a minute as Fort Lauderdale quickly answered back with the equalizer.
That came when, following a St. Thomas foul, Gabriel Gonzalez dumped a free kick from 30 yards out down in front of the net that Camilo Prado managed to head past Aquinas keeper Tyler Pages-Sanchez.
“Scoring quickly after we fell behind was important,” said Snipe. “It didn’t give us any time to really panic.”
Both teams enjoyed a few quality chances over the next 50 minutes of play but Pages-Sanchez and Medrano were both up to the task making some nice saves to keep the game tied.
Then came the game’s 72nd minute when the L’s were awarded a corner kick.
“For the past week we had really been practicing our set pieces,” said Binnion. “Juan [Collazo] is a lefty, an in-swinger, and when they tripled teamed Camilo [Prado], that left me open in the middle and managed to get a foot on the ball. Their keeper made the save but then I got to the rebound and knocked it in.”
Said Snipe: “These kids are a much more mature group of players now from that experience they went through two years ago. They know what it takes to get there and get over the top and hopefully we’ll be able to get there again.”
— BILL DALEY
This story was originally published February 20, 2021 at 10:36 PM.