Osceola not so lucky in boys soccer regionals

By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

For the first time, Osceola County sent three teams to the boys soccer regional playoffs.

Two will move on to the second round, another first.

Gateway and Celebration nursed one-goal leads through the end of their playoff games on Thursday and both will host regional semifinals at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Osceola, a 3-0 loser at Auburndale, saw its season end Thursday.

In a 6A Region 2 quarterfinal at the Ridenour Complex, Gateway (14-7-3) defeated Ocoee (9-8-2) 1-0 on a goal by Andres Jara with 14:34 left in the second half. The senior, who got one-on-one with Knights goalie Mark Adams, had a prior goal taken off the board on an offsides sending his team and the crowd into a rowdy uproar.

“Two guys came at me, I went right and I looked up and all I saw was the keeper,” Jara said of his scoring play. “I shot to the left and beat him. Then everybody jumped on me. It was great.”

The goal came on one of the few decent scoring chances of the game. Adams stopped drives by Felipe Oliviera and Luis Betancourt in the first half off set-piece free kicks, and the Gateway defense mostly kept it clean in front of goalie Diego Alejos, who needed to make just four saves to get the shutout.

With the win – Gateway’s first in the regional playoffs since 1999 – the Panthers will host again on Tuesday. West Orange, a 4-0 winner over Vero Beach on Thursday, will be the opponent at 7 p.m.

A Panther boys soccer team has never won a second playoff game in school history. Jara couldn’t quote that stat, but said a win Tuesday would feel historic for the program.

“We know we’re doing history here,” he said.

GHS Coach Oswald Attin said that while he expected a higher-scoring affair, he knew the match would be the 80-minute, all-out battle that it was.

“We knew nobody coming out of their district (6A-5) would be easy. I reminded the kids that they were district champs but they also had to play like it,” he said. “They started out slow and may have been kind of nervous at the start, but they never went away from playing our game.

“In the midfield we had the better ball control, which was the key. Andres was going to set the pace up front, and he and everybody else gave everything they had.”

In Class 4A, Celebration (14-1-3) overcame the loss of center midfielder Santiago Echeverri, who received a red card in last week’s District 6 championship game, and defeated Ocala Vanguard (19-5-1), 2-1. The Storm also will host their Region 2 semifinal Tuesday when they welcome Tavares (14-11-2), the team they beat for the district title

Tavares beat Gainesville Eastside Thursday, 7-6, in penalty kicks after the teams played to a scoreless tie in regulation.

Miguel Cortes and Jamie Anderson scored two minutes before and two minutes after halftime to build a two-goal lead. Tavares would cut the lead in half with 12 minutes left in the game, but couldn’t find the tying tally.

In Class 5A, Osceola (17-6-1), the District 5 runner-up and playing in the playoffs for the first time since 2003, could only watch as Auburndale scored all three of its goals on corner kicks.

“The kids played hard and I thought they played well,” OHS Coach Tom Bell said. “We just didn’t do enough well enough to win it.”

The winners of Tuesday’s games will advance to the regional finals round Friday for a chance to advance to the state tournaments.