Storm plays at No. 1 seed Boca Raton Wednesday for a place in Class 7A Final Four
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Celebration midfielder Anyelo Castellano challenges Olympic Heights goalie Antonio Andrade for the ball in Friday's Class 7A regional quarterfinal. PHOTO/MARIO CASAMALHUAPA -
Celebration's Euclides Sebastiani and Olympic Heights' Benjamin Labrador fight for a ball in Friday's playoff game, won by the Storm in penalty kicks. PHOTO/MARIO CASAMALHUAPA
As Celebration and Olympia Heights lined up for penalty kicks after 100 minutes of soccer to decide Friday night’s Class 7A, Region 3 semifinal game, Storm Coach Chad Boudreaux was leaning against the fence with his back to the field and his face buried in his arms.
He missed a great finish.
Senior goalie Chris Vargas stopped the first penalty shot he faced and his teammates made all five of their attempts to defeat Olympia Heights (1-1, 5-3), advancing to regional finals for a second consecutive year.
The Storm (11-2-2) will face top seed Boca Raton (21-0-2) for the 7A-3 championship on Wednesday at Boca Raton. It will be a rematch of the 2023 regional title game, won by Boca, 2-1.
“Anyone who has ever been around me knows it, I can’t stand watching shootouts,” Boudreaux said following the game. “I get too nervous and it’s just something that I can’t stand to watch. I just listen to the crowd reaction to figure out what happened.”
In some respects, the Storm was somewhat fortunate to even get to the shootout. In the second overtime with seven minutes remaining, Vargas collided with an Olympia attacker just outside the penalty area. He was given a yellow card on the play, forcing him out of the game until the next dead ball. Vargas was replaced by senior David Bracamonte, who had to face a free kick from just outside the box. Trahvens Octave blasted the free kick to the far right post, but Bracamonte deflected the ball for the save. He would then come up with a second save off the ensuing corner.
“I just love that kid, he is one of my favorite players I’ve ever coached. He works so hard in practice and could be a starter for a lot of teams,” Broudeaux said of Bracamonte. “We have a lot of confidence in him so it wasn’t a surprise to me that he made those big stops in that situation.”
Bracamonte’s heroics kept the game tied to set up the shootout. With the Storm shooting first, Anyelo Castellano buried the ball in the left corner for 1-0 advantage. Vargas followed with a terrific stop on Dylan Trachtenberg to keep the lead. Josa Mora, Santiago Garcia and Daniel Marquez each converted on the next three shots for the Storm, but they were matched by three consecutive makes by the Lions. Jose D’lima won the game with shot in the right corner of the net to beat goalie Antonio Andrade.
The Lions would draw first blood in the game at the 25-minute mark. Olympia Heights attackers got behind the Celebration defense and although Vargas made a solid save on the first hard shot, the rebound came out to Trachtenberg, who put it in the net for his team-leading 13th goal of the season.
Celebration had a chance to tie it two minutes later, but Andrade blocked a hard shot from distance that then hit the top of the crossbar before falling on the goal line where Andrade scooped it up. The Storm had one final chance to knot the game before halftime as Castellano had a breakaway but Andrade came off the line to grab the ball before he could get a shot off.
The Storm would get the equalizer with 23 minutes left in the second half. After the Lions blocked a shot out front, Castellano found the ball at his foot on the right side and buried it inside the far post to tie the game at 1-1.
Vargas then came up big several times to force overtime. With 18 minutes remaining, Cristian Romero had a header off a corner kick that Vargas saved. Three minutes later, Vargas blocked a Trachtenberg blast from the front of the net and then made a diving stop on the subsequent rebound.
“I said it last year and I’ll say it again,” Boudreaux said. “I truly believe Christopher is the best goalie in the state and he showed it again tonight.” Vargas has allowed just three goals during Celebration’s current 10-game win streak.
Celebration had a chance to win in regular with seven minutes to go when Castellano got off a shot from the right side that ricocheted off the far post and was cleared away.
“Give Olympia Heights a lot of credit, they are talented and well-coached. I thought they came in with a great game plan and they knew where our soft spots where and took advantage of it in the first half,” Boudreaux said. “We made the proper adjustments in the second half.”
Celebration led the game in shots (15-12), with shots on goal tied (8-8).
