Doral boys soccer unable to hold lead, send retiring coach off with another state title
Doral Academy’s bid to send its head coach into retirement with a third state title came up just a tad bit short.
Top-seed Orlando Lake Nona edged fourth-seed Doral 4-3 on Monday after winning a third overtime PK session 4-2 at Lake Myrtle Sports Complex.
The loss ended the coaching career of Doral head coach Pamela McDonald, who became the first female coach to lead a boys soccer team to a state championship in state history when Doral won the title in 2021. McDonald led Doral to a second state title in 2022.
“It would have been nice to go out in a bang like that (with a third state title),” McDonald said. “But to be honest, the season that we’ve had, and the change and the turnaround we’ve had with these kids this season, is incredible. Earlier, I wouldn’t have even thought we would have made it to the regional tournament.
“Our last three games, we went to overtime and PKs, and though it’s a cruel, cruel way to lose a soccer game, the journey I’ve had with all these kids and former players that stepped up to be coaches, that is what is significant to me.”
Doral had vaulted out to a 3-1 lead midway through the second half but the lead quickly disappeared after Lake Nona sophomore midfielder Moa Silva scored a pair of goals in a seven-minute span to knot the game 3-3.
Doral had jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 27:48 mark of the first half on a free kick by Manuel Benen. It was his first of two goals in the game.
“Both goals were to put us in the lead and it felt really good at the moment,” Benen said. “But we couldn’t close it out. I didn’t see them coming back that quickly, but I guess mistakes happen and we weren’t really focused in the back. But we win together as a team and we lose together as a team.”
Lake Nona tied the game 1-1 before the half, but Doral quickly seized control in the second half, getting a goal from Allan Menichelli off a loose ball in front of the net at the 26-minute mark, and Benen’s second goal, which was a rocket shot that just snuck under the crossbar at 23:35.
Doral picked up two PK goals from Luck Mejia and Gabriel Escalona in the overtime shootout but could muster no more.
McDonald is planning to move to Portugal and manage some properties she owns there.