Doral Academy reloads and then repeats as boys’ soccer state champions
Even though most of the names and faces changed from a year ago, the results were still the same.
The Doral Academy boys soccer team, nearly a year to the day since it won the program’s first state championship and despite returning only three starters, now have a second banner to hang.
After squandering a 2-0 first-half lead, the Firebirds maintained their poise through searing high-80s heat at Spec Martin Stadium and secured a 3-2 win over Viera in the Class 6A state championship thanks to Mateo Hincapie’s goal with 26 minutes left in regulation.
There was massive turnover for Doral coach Pam McDonald and her coaching staff to deal with this season. But when you’ve got a nationally prominent program on a roll the way McDonald does, it became more a matter of re-loading than rebuilding.
“It’s the heart of these guys, they never say die,” said McDonald, who became the first female coach in state history a year ago to win a state title coaching a boys soccer team. “We have such a rotation and such a belief that we can overcome anything and today we did. We stayed calm after losing the lead which is never easy to do and that says a lot about the character of these players.”
McDonald watched her players pretty much dominate most of the first half and grab a quick lead in the game’s 10th minute when, following a corner kick, Mathias Vallejo was able to get to a loose ball in front and one touch it to his left where Thiago Salmi was by himself and knocked it past Viera keeper Alvey Kaufmann.
The Firebirds (16-2-3), ranked No. 10 nationally by Max Preps, kept pressing and 16 minutes before halftime, got themselves a 2-0 lead. Mauricio Trejo and Vallejo executed a perfect two-on-one give-and-go two, Trejo passing the ball to his right where Vallejo waited for Kaufmann to commit to him before crossing it back to Trejo who had an empty net and popped it in.
But the Hawks, (18-2-1) who were playing in their first ever state final, turned the game back in their direction just before halftime. With just under two minutes left, some loose Doral defense allowed Yorgen Torres to come open down low off a crossing pass and he knocked it past Doral keeper Sebastian Ballestas to slice the Firebird lead in half at the break.
Viera then took that momentum and carried it into the second half. Just five minutes in, at the 35:08 mark, Doral defender Kaleb Jiron got beat down the left hand side by Viera’s Max May. When he tried to reach out with his right leg to knock the ball out of bounds, he missed. Instead tripping May inside the box, drawing a foul and a penalty kick which May converted.
“Sometimes a 2-0 lead can be the worst thing that can happen to a team,” said Doral midfielder and team captain Sebastian Chahin, one of those three returning starters. “We maybe lost a little bit of our intensity and allowed them to get back in it.”
But Doral kept battling. All day long Hincapie, from his forward position, had been getting the corner turned and around the defense at the baseline and creating shot opportunities.
With just over 26 minutes left, he got by the Viera defense again and found himself with a clean shot at the net and fired it into the top right corner past a diving Kaufmann for the game winner.
“I got a nice long ball in from my teammate, got to the end line and got the corner turned,” Hincapie said. “I had an opening to let the shot go and knew it was in when I kicked it. I felt like I was a little quicker than their defense and was confident I would be able to turn that corner a lot all day.”