Julio D’lima scored twice and Sebastian Ramis added an insurance goal as the Celebration Storm successfully defended their Orange Belt Conference boys’ soccer championship with a 3-1 win over host Gateway Friday.
“The key was our defense,” CHS assistant coach and athletic director Chad Boudreaux said. “We came into this season worried about our defense because of the number of young players and newcomers we had to play back there. But Lauren (Coach Lauren Osborn) is a defensive guru. She spent a lot of the preseason getting those kids ready and I look up after couple weeks and realize it’s our offense, not our defense, we really needed to worry about.”
Celebration struck in the third minute off a free kick from 25 yards out. The Storm chipped the free kick over the defensive wall to the left side, where D’lima gathered it in and found the right corner of the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Neither team mounted a serious threat for the rest of the half, although Gateway had several opportunities with several free kicks. But on each attempt, the Storm defenders were in position to clear the ball away. The Panthers best chance to score in the half came just after the 20-minute water stoppage when Jaun Cardenas had a breakaway and threw a crossing pass in front of the goal but just missed a charging Nicholas Quintero and the ball was cleared away by a Celebration defender.
D’lima made it 2-0 early in the second half. With a lot of traffic in front of the net, D’lima would put two superior touches of the ball around defenders and get off a diving strike with pace that found the right corner of the net.
But the fouls outside of the box would finally catch up to the Storm. Kevin Retana took a free kick from 23 yards out and blasted it past Storm goalie Christopher Hernandez at the 60-minute mark cut the margin to 2-1.
Two minutes later, Gateway was awarded another free kick from just outside the box on the right side, but this time Hernandez made a solid stop of a hard shot to keep the Storm in the lead.
Three minutes later off a corner kick, Ramis found the ball at his feet in front of the goal and converted to make it 3-1.
From there, the Storm kept numbers back and were able to run out the clock. It was a physical game with Celebration called for 20 fouls, three of which resulted in yellow cards and Gateway was whistled for 18 fouls. Each team had four corners, while Celebration led on shots on goal 5-4.
The game was played before a large and boisterous crowd, which is something both coaches commented on after the game.
“This was a very difficult game for us. The crowd was fantastic and Coach (Sagar) Patel has a lot to be proud of. His team is very athletic and very well coached and we had to play our tails off tonight,” Boudreaux said. “This is the type of game-- played in a loud, combative environment -- is something that can help us in the future. Obviously we hope to make a post-season run, but I am telling you, look for this Gateway team to make some noise in their classification too. We have some quality soccer teams in the county.”
“Incredible game and atmosphere tonight, the fans were fantastic. I just wished we could have given them the victory they deserved,” Patel added. “Celebration is the best team we faced all year and I thought we played pretty well. We had some opportunities to put more goals on the board and unfortunately we just did not cash in on those chances.”
With the win, Celebration moved to 10-2-1 on the season and has now allowed just eight goals in 13 games. They most likely will be the top seed in the Class 7A, Region 3, District 9 tournament that begins on Jan. 25. That district includes Harmony, Osceola, Poinciana and Tohopekaliga. Gateway falls to 11-2-1 on the season and will probably be seeded second in the Class 5A, Region 2, District 6 tournament behind Winter Garden’s Horizon. That district tournament also begins Wednesday. Official district pairing and schedule will be announced on Monday.
In the OBC third place earlier Friday, Harmony defeated Tohopekaliga, 2-1.
