Fledgling Downtown Doral boys’ soccer program clinches first trip to state final four

When you are just a third-year program and qualifying for the regional playoffs for the very first time, what normally happens is you might do gracefully bow out in the first round and build on gaining valuable postseason experience for future seasons.

Somebody forgot to tell that to the Downtown Doral Academy boys’ soccer team.

The Dolphins won their first district championship a few weeks ago and haven’t slowed down since.

Entering as the No. 5 seed, they edged Westminster Christian in the regional quarterfinals, shocked top-seeded University School in the semifinals and, on Wednesday night in front of their vociferous and frenzied fans, decisively beat Doral Divine Savior Academy 6-3 in a Region 4-3A final at Tropical Park Stadium.

Just like that, Downtown Doral, a school that just opened its doors four years ago and hasn’t even had a graduating class yet, is headed to the state final four.

The Dolphins (17-4-1) will head to Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale as the No. 3 seed and take on No. 2 Tallahassee Maclay in a 3A state semifinal on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 4 p.m.

“These kids are special and play with no fear out on the field,” Downtown Doral coach Jonathan Rosas said. “With each win, they keep making more history and they went out there tonight and made some more. Just a bunch of passionate kids who take pride in their teamwork. Soccer is their life and they bring that out on to the field every time. I can’t be more proud of them and now we’re looking forward to going to state and keep this thing going.”

When Divine Savior’s Miguel Petter scored just 12 minutes into the game to give his team an early 1-0 lead, it appeared the Sharks were on their way to avenging a 2-0 loss to the Dolphins a few weeks ago in the district title game.

But that was it for the Sharks as Downtown Doral, led by senior forward Luis Rueda and sophomore Eduardo Jerez, took complete control of the game by blitzing Divine with four goals over the final 25 minutes of the first half.

Jerez scored first off an assist from Rueda before Jerez returned the favor a few minutes later, feeding Rueda a nice pass down low for another goal just before the first half water break.

With 10 minutes left in the first half, Santiago Ramos scored on an unassisted goal and five minutes after that, Siul Rueda, Luis’ younger brother, knocked a header in off a perfect corner kick from Fabricio Encina for a 4-1 lead.

Any hopes of a second half comeback for Divine Savior faded quickly when Nico Sulbaran beat the defense down the right side with 33:20 left to make it 5-1 before Jose Uzcategui scored off an assist from Juan Gorrin seven minutes later to make it 6-1 and the celebrating was under way.

Maybe a little too much as the Dolphins perhaps let down on defense giving up a pair of goals, one a penalty kick by Petter and then another by Daniel Vanososte with 15:06 left that gave the Sharks a sliver of life.

But Downtown Doral defenders tightened things up after that and waited for the final whistle to blow and storm the center of the field in mass celebration.

“We’ve been going like this since the beginning of the season and we knew we had something like this in us,” Luis Rueda said. “We’re young and want to give our school something to be proud of. We’re new guys on the block but that’s okay, we love that and want to make sure everybody knows who we are. I think everybody knows who we are now.”