Defending champ Lourdes hangs on, edges Palmetto in girls soccer regional quarterfinal

They may have won and advanced, but when you are a girls soccer program like Lourdes and you are the defending 5A state champions, the bar is set pretty high.

Thus there were not a lot of smiling faces when they filed off the field at Columbus High School on Tuesday night following a much-tougher-than-expected 1-0 victory over Palmetto in a Region 4-5A quarterfinal contest.

It was a year ago that Lourdes easily cruised past Palmetto 3-0 in the very same round. The Bobcats will now take on Coral Reef in a regional semifinal on Friday at 7 p.m. at Tropical Park. That game will also be a rematch from a year ago. Lourdes came up with a 1-0 win.

When Emma Diaz scored off an assist from Mia Atrio in the game’s fourth minute, it appeared Lourdes (20-1-1) would cruise to another easy win.

But as it turned out, that would be the only goal of the night as Palmetto (10-5-1) proved to be every bit of Lourdes’ equal.

With eight minutes left, Palmetto’s Emma Pardo got a turnover right in front of the net but her shot was deflected just to the left of the post. The ensuing corner kick resulted in another loose ball out in front of net that Alexandra Abaroa got a good foot on but saw her shot from 15 yards out bounce off the left post.

“Obviously the result tonight matters as we needed to win the game in order to move on,” said Lourdes coach Ramiro Vengoechea. “But what concerns me is the performance. What we need to do to win games, not just winning the game. We came in with a game plan and just did not play well. We have a structure in how we defend and how we attack and there was no structure on how we defended and how we attacked.”

But, having lost nine of the 11 starters, the Bobcats are also a shell of last year’s state championship team.

“It has been a rebuilding season for sure,” said Vengoechea. “We’ve got a lot of girls that are young, learning, trying to adapt and it’s been a process but it’s going to need to get better quickly because the games are only going to get tougher.”

“It’s definitely been a hard adjustment having lost nine starters from last year,” said Atrio, one of the two returning starters along with Alexa Mascaro. “But we still did not play to our full potential and if we don’t pick it up, we’re not going to make it back up to state.”

REGION 4-5A QUARTERFINAL: Coral Reef 7, Coral Gables 1

There was very little panic from the Barracudas when Gables tied the game early as host Reef, led by Tianna Rivera and Celeste Baro, blitzed the Cavaliers with six unanswered goals to cruise to the easy win on Tuesday afternoon.

In a rarity, both Rivera and Baro came in with a three-goal “hat trick” performances as the Cudas improved to 20-1-2 and will host defending 5A state champion Lourdes on Friday at Tropical Park at 7 p.m.

Ashley Alfaro had the other Reef goal while Daniela Baerga (2), Daniela Perez, Christina Lagas, Kat Kiaz and Madison Nunez contributed with assists.

“We got off to a slow start and Gables made us pay with that early goal,” said Coral Reef head coach Deano Nunez. “But we woke up and started playing our style and took advantage of some mismatches. I know a lot of people don’t want to play Lourdes but they’ve beaten us the past few years and I wouldn’t mind another shot at them.”

More results

▪ Region 4-5A quarterfinal: Cypress Bay 8, Krop 0.

▪ Region 4-5A quarterfinal: Cooper City 3, Western 1.

▪ Region 4-4A quarterfinal: Archbishop McCarthy 7, TERRA 0

▪ Region 4-4A quarterfinal: St. Thomas Aquinas 4, Doral Academy 0.

▪ Region 4-3A quarterfinal: Plantation American Heritage 4, Miami Springs 1.

▪ Region 4-3A quarterfinal: Pembroke Pines Charter 6, Mourning 1.

▪ Region 4-2A quarterfinal: Cardinal Gibbons 3, Delray American Heritage 2.

▪ Region 4-2A quarterfinal: Oxbridge Academy 3, North Broward Prep 0

▪ Region 4-2A quarterfinal: Carrollton 2, Ransom Everglades 1: Annie Diaz-Silveira 1 goal; Natalia Hoadley 1 goal; Genevieve Barquet 1 assist.

▪ Region 4-2A quarterfinal: LaSalle 4, Westminster Christian 2.

▪ Region 4-1A quarterfinal: Westminster Academy 8, Hillel 0.

▪ Region 4-1A quarterfinal: Miami Country Day 3, South Florida HEAT 0.

▪ Region 4-1A quarterfinal: Archimedean 1, Somerset Academy 0.

▪ Region 4-1A quarterfinal: Palmer Trinity 8, SLAM Academy 0.

This story was originally published February 5, 2019 at 11:29 PM.