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Julio D’lima scored twice, Sebastian Ramis added an insurance goal, and the Celebration Storm successfully defended the Orange Belt Conference men’s soccer championship with a 3-1 victory over hosts Gateway on Friday.
“The defense was key,” said Chad Boudreau, CHS assistant coach and athletic director. “I was worried about the defense this season because we had to play a lot of young players and rookies. I spent a lot of time getting my kids ready. After a few weeks I looked up and realized it was an attack and not our defense, we really should have worried.
Celebration was struck three minutes from a free-kick from 25 yards out. The Storm free kicked his kick past his wall on the left flank before Dilimah collected it and put it into the right corner of the goal to take a 1-0 lead.
Gateway had a few chances with some free-kicks, but neither team posed a serious threat to the rest of the half. On each attempt, however, the Storm defenders were in position to clear the ball. The Panthers’ biggest chance to score at halftime came in 20 minutes when Jaune Cardenas made a breakaway by throwing a cross pass in front of goal, missed a Nicolas Quintero charge and the ball was cleared by a celebration. It was right after the water stop. defender.
D’lima made it 2-0 early in the second half. With a lot of traffic in front of the net, Dilimah put two excellent touches of the ball around the defenders and unleashed a diving strike on pace to find the right corner of the net.
But a foul outside the box would eventually catch up with the Storm. Kevin Retana fired a free-kick from 23 yards out to beat Storm goalkeeper Christopher Hernandez in the 60th minute to close the gap to 2-1.
Two minutes later, Gateway were awarded another free kick from just outside the right-hand box, but this time Hernandez secured a hard shot to keep the Storm ahead.
Three minutes after the corner kick, Ramis found the ball at his feet in front of goal to make it 3-1.
From there, the Storm was able to keep the numbers up and run out the clock. Whistled. Each team had his four corners and Celebration shot on goal 5-4.
The game was played in front of a large and noisy crowd. This is what both coaches commented after the game.
“This was a very difficult game for us. The crowd was great and coach (Sagar) Patel has a lot to be proud of. I had to give it my all tonight because I’m in the middle of nowhere,” Boudreau said. “It’s the type of game that’s played in a loud, combative environment, and it’s something that can help us in the future. Expect to make a fuss with the classification. There are some quality football teams in the county.”
“Great game and atmosphere tonight, the fans were great. I wish I could have given them the win they deserve,” added Patel. “Celebration was the best team we played against all year and I thought we played pretty well. I couldn’t take the chance.”
With the win, Celebration moved to 10-2-1 on the season and have now allowed just eight goals in 13 games. They are most likely to be the top seeds for the Class 7A, Region 3, District 9 tournament starting January 25th. Its Districts include Harmony, Osceola, Poinciana, and Tohopie Carriga. Gateway said he fell to 11-2-1 during the season, and he could be seeded second in the Class 5A, Region 2, District 6 tournament, behind Winter Gardens Horizon. The district convention also begins on Wednesday. Official district pairings and schedules will be announced on Monday.
At Friday’s OBC third place, Harmony defeated Tohopie Kariga, 2–1.
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