Lourdes unable to cap challenging, emotional soccer season with a state championship

The moment was a difficult one.

Team captain Coco Aguilar stood in line sobbing and crying uncontrollably.

She had the number 19 jersey in her hand ready to hold it up and ready for her ailing teammate Katy Puig’s name to be called.

So badly, all season long, she and her Lourdes Academy teammates had wanted to deliver on a state championship, playing for her.

But Aguilar’s tears were tears of sadness. All season, the Bobcats, bearing the pressure of trying to “win it for Katy” had made it all the way to the state championship game and were 80 minutes of good soccer away from delivering.

It was going to be perfect. It was going to be fittingly win No. 19.

But it didn’t happen.

If it were a Disney movie, maybe you get the happy ending.

All Lourdes got was a fired up team from Gulf Breeze High School (just outside Pensacola) that outplayed the Bobcats from the opening whistle and delivered a gut-wrenching 4-1 loss in the Class 6A state championship game at Spec Martin Stadium.

Lourdes had no answer for Gulf Breeze striker Ava Matherne, who owned the field in the first half as she stunned Bobcat players and their loyal fans who showed up en masse decked out in their powder blue shirts by scoring three goals to stake the Dolphins (20-2-1) to a 3-1 halftime lead. The Bobcats never recovered.

The loss marked the third straight for the Bobcats in the state title game since winning their second championship in 2020 but this one perhaps stung much more than the others.

Puig suffered serious injuries in a boating accident in the Florida Keys last September and is still on a very long road to recovery. The same accident claimed the life of Lourdes student Lucy Fernandez and Aguilar herself suffered minor injuries.

When the postgame medal ceremony took place, Bobcat players were forced to settle for runner-up medals, but it didn’t matter. Aguilar and school officials made sure that Puig’s jersey was in her hand and that her name would be called out.

“I’m just struggling for words right now, this is a really tough moment,” said Aguilar, who is Puig’s best friend. “I think we all gave it our all, total effort out there but for whatever reason it just didn’t happen and didn’t end the way we wanted it to end. But I’m proud of my teammates for getting this far and wouldn’t want to do it any other way.”

Aguilar said she didn’t believe she and her teammates put too much pressure on themselves this season to play and win a title with Puig on their minds.

“I don’t think it was too much,” Aguilar said. “We love Katy but we also wanted to do it for us as well. I’m a senior so this is it for me but I know my returning teammates will all be back and get it done.”

Matherne stunned the Bobcats by beating the defense down the right side and scoring her first goal just six minutes into the game to put Gulf Breeze, which won its third state title but first since 2001, up 1-0.

But Lourdes had a very quick answer. Just 45 seconds later they scored the equalizer when Nicole Lee dumped a perfect ball down low in front of the net off a direct kick and Aguilar headed it in tying the game 1-1.

But loose defense plagued the Bobcats throughout the first half and Matherne beat everyone down the right side again to pop her second one in just after the water break to put the Dolphins up 2-1. Just 1:38 before halftime, she did it for a third time. Then it went to 4-1 with 24 minutes left when Ellie Pavey scored.

An example of how frustrating the day was for Lourdes came four minutes later when they were awarded a penalty kick off a hand ball the box by Gulf Breeze. Antonella Monsalve took the shot only to have it bounce off the right post.

“I thought the girls came in ready to go,” Lourdes coach David Fique said. “At the end of the day, I don’t want it to sound like excuses but we do have a young group of girls. They still got us here and we’re proud of that with everything they had to go through.”

Fique also didn’t think Lourdes’ play was affected by any pressure to play for Puig.

“The sentiment was there,” Fique said. “To be honest, as a coach I missed her too. But this week was all about the 25 girls that got us here. About making them feel comfortable and putting them in a position to succeed. They did it all season long so there was no reason to think they couldn’t do it today. Sure, the pressure was there. She was Coco’s best friend so it was tough for her and obviously they had that on their shoulders but they wanted to do it for each other in addition to Katy as well. It just didn’t happen.”

This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 9:53 PM.