Miami Beach boys’ soccer handling its business as it blanks St. Thomas Aquinas
“What time is it?” Edgar Botto shouted to his euphoric Miami Beach boys’ soccer players.
“Business time,” his players shouted back.
The game had just ended and Botto’s Hi-Tides had done exactly that.
They took care of business after traveling to Broward County on Friday night to take on Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas in a Region 4-6A semifinal and recorded an impressive 3-0 shutout of the Raiders.
No. 3 seed Miami Beach (17-5-1) will travel to Broward County again on Wednesday to take on top-seeded Hollywood South Broward in the Region 4-6A final after the Bulldogs pulled out a 1-0 (4-3 on penalty kicks) shootout win over Dr. Krop in the opposite semifinal. The game will be played at either South Broward High School or Broward Community College.
“The kids played really well tonight,” Botto said. “From the start of the game, they came out with a ton of energy and gave everything they had. We’ve been motivating them, preaching what we stand for – Hi-Tide pride. We leave everything on the field and they left it out there tonight.”
Botto watched his players, who survived their own penalty kick shootout win over Coral Park in a regional quarterfinal three days earlier, not necessarily dominate the Raiders all night but seemingly beat them by a half a step every time there was 50-50 ball to be won.
Ten minutes before halftime, the Hi-Tides struck for their first goal off a perfectly executed set piece from a corner kick. Daniel Jurado got a ball from David D’Alba and headed it past Aquinas keeper Michael Bergstrom for a 1-0 lead.
“We played our game, control possession and when we had an opportunity down low, tried to pound the net and put pressure on their goalkeeper,” Botto said.
Botto then watched his back line of Maxwell Benitez, Diogo Guarita and Gianfranco Catalini turn in stellar work as they prevented the Raiders (19-6-3) from really getting any quality shots at the net for the remainder of the night.
With 25 minutes left, Tomas Cortez rocketed a perfect pass down the right hand side to D’Alba and the Beach forward beat St. Thomas defenders down the right side before right-footing a perfect shot past a diving Bergstrom to make it 2-0.
“Tomas gave me a great ball, threaded me the pass, I got the angle on the right side, bottom lefted it in and that was that,” D’Alba said. “The key tonight was that we never relaxed after we got the goal to take the lead. Teams sometimes tend to relax once they take the lead but we didn’t allow that happen. We did a good job of keeping the intensity up from start to finish. We passed the ball well, possessed it, kind of frustrated them a little bit and got it done.”
The Hi-Tides put the icing on their near-perfect night with just over three minutes left when Kamil Lazrak beat the Raiders defense down low, knocking one into the net to complete the scoring. When the whistle blew, Hi-Tide players sprinted toward the stands. Even though they were on the visitors field, a big throng of Beach fans had made the trip up and celebrated with their players.
“This is great,” D’Alba said. “We came into the season as underdogs and tonight as underdogs and there’s nothing like proving everybody wrong. It’s not over yet. The goal is state so we’re looking forward to the next game.”