Leyva’s two goals lead University School boys’ soccer into regional finals, Gulliver next

Sometimes revenge can be an awfully good motivating factor.

In the case of the NSU University School boys soccer team, it worked to perfection on Friday night.

Nearly a year to the day after the Sharks, as the No. 1 seed, were stunned on their home field by upstart Downtown Doral, suffering a 1-0 loss, they were not ready to allow history to repeat itself.

On the strength of a pair of Raul Leyva goals, University got even with Downtown Doral, knocking off the Dolphins 3-1 in a Region 4-3A semifinal at U-School’s AutoNation Field.

Seeded No. 2 this year, the Sharks (16-3-1) will now face an even bigger challenge on Wednesday when they travel to take on top-seeded and two-time reigning state champion Miami Gulliver Prep in a Region 4-3A final at 3 p.m.

Gulliver survived a major scare, edging Miami SLAM Academy on penalty kicks in the opposite semifinal.

“Our seniors from last year’s team sent out a nice little message in a group chat during the week to our current players and said ‘do this for us,’ ” University coach Thiago Oliveira said. “We felt we were good enough to go all the way and win state and it didn’t happen when we gave up a late goal on a counter attack when because we got overly greedy. Today, we played inspired, disciplined soccer and the result was what we needed.”

Like last season, the Dolphins, only in their third year of existence as a program, advanced as a No. 6 seed after knocking off MAST Academy in a quarterfinal matchup. But unlike 2024, there would be no magical run for the Dolphins who went all the way to the state championship game.

Leyva scored his second goal five minutes into the second half to snap a 1-1 halftime tie before Nicholas Marques added an insurance goal 11 minutes later to complete the scoring.

“We were locked into this game the minute we found out who we were playing,” Leyva said. “We knew that had to come in playing 10 times harder than last year so all we wanted was revenge and to play with class.”

But Leyva was not happy after the game.

In a heated contest filled with yellow cards, tempers flared and both benches nearly emptied with eight minutes left when Downtown Doral goalkeeper Roger Garces received a straight red card for throwing a punch at Leyva. Evidently in retaliation, Leyva got himself red carded as well meaning he will not be eligible to play in the Gulliver game.

“I got pushed onto the field because I was time-wasting with the ball so one of their players pushed me to the field and I pushed him back,” Leyva said. “Then their keeper came out and punched right in the face. I went away from the play and certainly earned a yellow for grabbing his jersey but I made sure I didn’t shove anyone else and certainly didn’t throw any punches.”

Oliveira said he will be sending the video off to the state this weekend and was confident that Leyva’s red will be reduced to a yellow.

“The kid just destroyed him from behind and actually punched him in the eye,” Oliveira said. “Raul did pull his shirt, yanked him back and gave him a few words and certainly deserved a yellow card. But a straight red card after getting punched in the face? He didn’t deserve that. I will send video off to the state and appeal it. Hopefully we will have him for the Gulliver game next week because he showed out there tonight what he does offensively for our team.”

Leyva’s first goal came 15 minutes before halftime to put the Sharks up 1-0 on a perfectly executes give-and-go between three players. Call it the 8-9-10 play as Tommy Abramzon (No. 8) fired a shot from the left corner inside to Daniel Ciffoni (No. 9) who then one-touched it to Leyva (No. 10) down low who knocked it past a diving Garces.

Downtown Doral (11-6-2) got the equalizer 3:45 before halftime when Jose Uzcategui fired a perfect centering pass to Rodrigo Perez who had open space and rocketed a right foot shoot into the bottom left corner of the net.

Following Leyva’s second goal to give his team a 2-1 lead, Marques, who assisted on Leyva’s previous goal, scored one of his own when, with Garces too far out from the goal, fired a shot from 40 yards out toward that took one bounce and found the net when Garces could not get there in time.

▪ Region 4-2A semifinal - Florida Christian 1, Westminster Christian 0: Senior Cristian Garcia scored the lone goal for the Patriots (10-8-3), who advance to play at Scheck Hillel on Wednesday in the regional finals. Senior Jason Rodriguez had the assist on the score.

MORE SCORES

4-2A: Scheck Hillel 6, Hialeah Educational 0; 4-1A: Highlands Christian 1, Pinecrest Prep 0; North Miami Beach SLAM 5, West Palm Beach Berean Christian 0.

This story was originally published February 15, 2025 at 8:31 AM.