LaSalle boys’ soccer loses Class 2A championship match in penalty kicks

An enormous fan base from Immaculata-LaSalle High School made the four-hour trip north hoping to witness history on Thursday night.

Their boys’ soccer team was looking to do something no team had ever done in the school’s 61-year history: win a state title.

But the wait will have to continue as the Royal Lions battled to the bitter end through 100 minutes of regulation and overtime and then an extra round of penalty kicks before falling to Orlando Lake Highland Prep. 2-1 (5-4 PKs) in the Class 2A state championship game at Spec Martin Stadium.

LaSalle players either buried their heads in their hands or fell to the ground in despair when Mohammed Elshafie’s penalty kick in the sixth round was stopped on a diving save by Lake Highland keeper Garrett Anderson to give the Highlanders their first state championship in program history.

“Just a really tough moment right now for those boys,” said LaSalle head coach Richard Jobson pointing to his distraught players. “What can you say. That’s soccer. It can be a very unforgiving sport at times, but the boys played their absolute hearts out and wanted to so badly bring this home, especially when they looked up and saw all the fans we brought with us tonight.”

After a scoreless first half, Jobson watched his team fall behind five minutes into the second half when Mateo Munizaga fouled a Lake Highland player inside the box. Preston Brown took the ensuing penalty kick and knocked it past LaSalle keeper Iker Sanchez.

But, much to the delight of screaming Royal Lions fans, LaSalle got the equalizer it needed when Lake Highland was called for a foul just outside the box with 23:04 left.

Lucas Rodrigues lined up for the direct kick and, despite being in close and having to deal with a five-man wall, managed to knife a twisting shot just to the right of the wall and put some draw on the ball, just sneaking it inside the right post past a diving Anderson to tie the game.

“Not an easy shot but I saw their keeper commit a little further to the left post so I tried to see if I could hook right to left and go right post,” said Rodrigues. “It felt great at that moment because I thought we were going to win it. I thought we were going to win right down to the very end. This really hurts so bad right now. We wanted to win this for us, our fans and our school.”

Had it not been for an incredible Sanchez save, the Royal Lions (22-6-2) might never have seen overtime or penalty kicks.

With 30 seconds left in regulation, a perfect Lake Highland deep ball down in front of the net off a direct kick from 40 yards found Gary Newman, who headed a small looper that looked like it would get over Sanchez and just under the crossbar.

But Sanchez leaped as high as he could and just barely got a piece of the ball sending it over the crossbar extending the game.

Neither team seriously scared the net during the two 10-minute overtime periods, sending thematch to PKs. Anderson stoned Kamani Turner on LaSalle’s first attempt as Lake Highland led 3-2 after three rounds.

But then Sanchez stepped up and made a huge diving save off the foot of Kai Jones, setting the stage for Anderson’s second save that gave the Highlanders the title.

“Tough, really tough right now,” said Sanchez. “But we left everything on the field and that’s all I could ask of myself and my teammates. It would’ve been so great to bring this one back to our school.”

Said Jobson: “This is life sometimes, you enjoy the great moments but learn to deal with the disappointing ones. In a few days, once the sting of this settles down, we will look back at this historic season with fond memories but right now, there is till a lot of disappointment and heartbreak.”

This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 11:06 PM.