St. Brendan ends long drought for its boys teams with first trip to state soccer finals
Alex Rodriguez wasn’t born the last time a boys team from St. Brendan High competed for a state championship.
Even his parents were younger than he is now the last time it happened.
Through what was at times a pouring rain during Saturday night’s match at St. Brendan’s home field, Rodriguez and his teammates on the Sabres’ boys soccer team made more history for their program and their school when they comfortably dispatched visiting Arcadia DeSoto County 5-0 in a Class 4A state semifinal.
St. Brendan (16-1-3) secured its first-ever opportunity to play for a state championship in boys’ soccer, which it hopes will come to fruition on Thursday at 4 p.m. when it faces Orlando Bishop Moore at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand.
“This school isn’t known for its soccer program but it’s been on the rise for some time,” Rodriguez said. “We’ve been building a stronger and stronger squad since we were freshmen and it’s helped a lot.”
Rodriguez scored three goals and Danny Reyes finished with a goal and an assist to lead the Sabres.
But as they and their teammates celebrated on the soaked field turf after the final whistle blew on Saturday, the longtime St. Brendan alums and faculty in attendance knew the victory meant much more.
It’s the first time a boys’ sport reached a state final since the Sabres’ baseball team brought home a state title in 1983 — still the only boys’ state championship in the school’s history.
In the 39 years since, the Sabres have advanced to state in only twice in major team sports when the girls’ volleyball team made it to the final four in 2019 and the softball team did the same in 1989 and 1990.
St. Brendan has become a powerhouse in competitive cheerleading in recent years, winning state titles each of the past seven seasons. The Sabres also won a state title in 1976 in girls’ volleyball.
But for the Catholic school, which has an enrollment of roughly 1,200 students of whom approximately three quarters are girls, boys’ sports success has been even more fleeting.
“There’s been a huge growth in general with the boys’ sports here at St. Brendan especially since the new (on-campus) stadium was built,” St. Brendan coach Davide Favaro said. “The players want to play here and be a part of this program and the school.”
Favaro, an alum of St. Thomas University and a former pro player in Italy who played on the youth level with AC Milan, became the Sabres coach six years ago.
Along with longtime assistant coach Ray Del Toro, the two began to build a squad they hoped would be able to compete with longtime powerhouses in the area such as Gulliver, Ransom, Columbus and others.
Over that time, the school built the aforementioned stadium Favaro spoke of with a modern scoreboard and field turf for its fledgling football team as well as soccer and lacrosse.
The improved results in soccer started to come the past three seasons with a group of juniors which includes Rodriguez, who leads the team with 27 goals and recorded his fifth hat trick of the season on Saturday. Rodriguez, who came to the U.S. from Cuba with his family when he was only a year and a half old, is an A-student who scored a 1470 on his SAT and is looking to keep playing at the college level.
“I’m very happy for the boys and my satisfaction is for them to grow mentally and physically to have an opportunity to play college ball,” Favaro said. “All of this is for them.”
St. Brendan had never even won a regional playoff game in soccer before this season.
Since losing a heartbreaker to Gulliver 2-1 in the district championship round, the Sabres have shut out all four of their opponents on their way to state led by a solid defense anchored by senior goalkeeper Pipe Rodriguez, who has been in net for every clean sheet.
After the post-match hysteria settled down, both Favaro and Del Toro cautioned their players to be smart over the next few days as they prepared for the state final.
But keeping focus on making more history hasn’t been an issue yet for the Sabres.
“We’re really proud of this but we can’t let it get to our heads,” Rodriguez said. “Anything can happen in a soccer game so we need to stay grounded with this, obviously with pride and motivation, but hopefully we can get it done.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 9:21 AM.
