Senior’s scoring prediction comes true, propelling Lourdes soccer back to state semis
Coco Aguilar isn’t one to often make any brash predictions.
But she made one on Monday. Less than 24 hours before she took the field against St. Thomas Aquinas, Aguilar, a senior forward who had 48 career goals, messaged her head coach David Fique with “I’m going to get to 50 tomorrow night.”
Darned if she didn’t go there and do just that.
Aguilar came through in a big way on Tuesday night as she indeed did make it to 50, scoring twice in the final 17 minutes to give Lourdes Academy a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas at Monsignor Pace High School.
Even though it marked the program’s seventh state final four berth in the last eight seasons, it never gets old for the Bobcats as they enjoyed a huge celebration with their fans following the final whistle.
Lourdes (17-1-2) moves on to the Class 6A state semifinals where the Bobcats, after No. 1 state-ranked Ponte Vedra lost in the regional semifinals, will now be the top-ranked and No. 1 seeded team. They will host No. 4 seed Land O’ Lakes Sunlake on Friday at 7 p.m. at Columbus High School.
Aguilar scored on a header off an assist from Sienna Aviles with 17 minutes left in regulation to break a scoreless tie before scoring her second and No. 50 with less than a minute to go on a one-on-one breakaway to wrap things up.
“This is just crazy because I know I messaged coach about 50 but didn’t really expect it to happen,” said Aguilar, who was soaked after being doused with cold water by her teammates. “I saw the perfect opportunity late in the game and didn’t waste it. This team is so special, my senior year, can’t lose, it’s all about redemption and this season it’s all for my friend Katy. We’ve got her name everywhere, on our wrists, on our jerseys, every time we start to get tired, we look at it and we know we’re playing for her.”
Aguilar spoke of course about their teammate Katerina Puig, who was seriously injured last September in a tragic boating accident that took the life of another Lourdes student and has had her hospitalized ever since. Puig is still of the midst of a long journey back and currently at Baptist Health Homestead Hospital Rehab Center.
Aguilar herself was involved in the accident, suffering minor injuries that caused her to miss the beginning of the season.
But none of that slowed her down.
“Coco is so resilient, her story is amazing,” Fique said. “When she came back after missing the beginning of season, she scored two goals right out of the gate. We get so much from her, her smile, her resilience. It’s so infectious for this team and this school. When she sent me that text message, somehow I just knew she would find a way to get those two goals.”
After a non-descript first half by both teams devoid of any real great scoring chances, things picked up in the second half as the Bobcats started applying more pressure on Aquinas keeper Camryn McEwen.
Three minutes after the second half water break, Lourdes finally broke through when it was awarded a corner kick. Aviles lined up the corner kick and delivered a perfect ball to the far post that Aguilar couldn’t quite get to. McEwen made the save by punching the ball back out where Aviles was waiting for it again and again sent it toward the goal. This time Aguilar got her head on it and knocked it in the top-right corner.
“Sienna is one of our best corner kickers and put a good kick in there,” Aguilar said. “I missed it the first time, then when it got kicked back out. Then I saw her look at me and she put another good ball down low. When I went up for it, I thought I might hit my head on the post but who cares, I had to find a way to get my head on that ball and I did.”
It was another tough loss for Aquinas which was looking for its first trip to the state final four since 2017 (after going to six in a seven year span between 2011 and 2017) as the Raiders finished 14-4-2.