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TOPIC: Congratulations to the Columbus boys! |
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| kickit
February 5, 2014
8:19:56 AM
Entry #: 4112964
| Congratulations to the Columbus boys and Coach Stewart on your overtime win against Sunset!
The best of luck against Cypress Bay on Friday!!
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| Joel W
February 5, 2014
9:06:39 AM
Entry #: 4112969
| Is this the year a Miami team finally beats Cypress Bay?
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| Skip P
February 7, 2014
10:58:49 AM
Entry #: 4113166
| Great accomplishment by Columbus, but season probably ends tonight.
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| FLORIDASCORES 1
February 9, 2014
11:31:28 AM
Entry #: 4113339
| Cypress Bay boys soccer falls to Columbus 2-1
By Gary Curreri, Correspondent
11:42 p.m. EST, February 7, 2014
WESTON—
– The Explorers are in unchartered territory and loving every minute of it.
Eduardo Diaz's goal in the second minute of overtime propelled visiting Columbus to a 2-1 victory over three-time defending state champion Cypress Bay in the Class 5A Regional final on Friday night. The victory marked the third consecutive overtime victory in the playoff for Columbus, which had never been past the regional semifinals in school history.
"It's a great feeling," said Columbus coach Michael Stewart, whose team advances to play the winner of the Oviedo/Mandarin game in the state semifinals. "We don't finish games, so we keep going to overtime."
Explorers' defender Joseph Tolgyesi served a long free kick that Alec Hoadley headed back toward the middle of the goal where Diaz was waiting and blistered a shot from 10 yards out to the back post past a diving Cypress Bay goalkeeper Juan Calle.
"We won the last three (state championships) and they don't know what it is to lose," said Cypress Bay coach Johnny Ramos, whose last loss in the playoffs came in 2010 when it lost to the eventual state champion, Boca High. "It's hard, but it's life. You have to have moments like this to get better."
Cypress Bay (17-2-3), which had won 17 consecutive playoff games while winning three state titles, managed to tie the game in the closing minute of regulation as Alex Bailey whipped in a cross from the right side and Nicolas DeMujica scored as he beat Explorers goalkeeper Bryan Alvarez from six yards out.
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Columbus (20-4-5) dominated possession for most of the first half and they were finally rewarded with a goal in the 16th minute when Danny Del Rio scored his 14th goal of the season.
Tolgyesi hit a left-footed free kick from 40 yards out that Calle deflected off the crossbar. The ball fell straight to the feet of Del Rio, who blasted into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead that stood for most of the contest.
"In overtime, if you make one mistake you get punished for it and that's part of the game," said Cypress Bay coach Johnny Ramos. "We knew their dead balls would be a danger and we had a tough time in the first half. They pressed us well. We did a better job in the second half."
The only other loss this season for the Lightning came in the sixth game of the season against Pembroke Pines Charter, 3-2. They were 15-0-1 since then until Friday's loss.
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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| FLORIDASCORES 1
February 12, 2014
10:37:56 AM
Entry #: 4113652
| Dynamic duo leads Columbus’ first trip to state in boys’ soccer
By Walter Villa The Miami Herald
State boys’ soccer finals
When: Wednesday Through Saturday.
Where: Eastern Florida State College, 3865 North Wickham Road, Melbourne.
Admission: $9 per session.
Defending state champions: Class 5A — Weston Cypress Bay 4A — Naples Gulf Coast 3A — Ponte Vedra 2QA — Jacksonville Bolles 1A — Tampa Prep.
Wednesday’s schedule: Class 1A semifinals — North Miami Beach Scheck Hillel vs. Orlando First Academy, 10 a.m. Lake Worth Trinity Christian vs. Bradenton St. Stephen’s, 12:30 Class 2A semifinals — Miami Gulliver vs. Pensacola Catholic, 3 Orlando Bishop Moore vs. Tampa Berkeley Prep, 5:30.
Thursday’s schedule: Class 3A semifinals — Southwest Ranches Archbishop McCarthy vs. Choctawatchee, 10 a.m. Merritt Island vs. Land O’Lakes Sunlake, 12:30 Class 1A championship, 3. Class 2A championship, 5:30.
Friday’s schedule: Class 4A semifinals — Delray Beach Atlantic vs. Orange Park Fleming Island, 10 a.m. Melbourne vs. Bradenton Lakewood Ranch, 12:30 Class 5A semifinals — Miami Columbus vs. Oviedo, 3 Boca Raton vs. Tarpon Springs East Lake, 5:30 Class 3A championship, 8.
Saturday’s schedule: Class 4A championship, 3 p.m. Class 5A championship, 5:30.
By Walter Villa
Special to the Miami Herald
Seconds before the start of the Class 5A regional final against Cypress Bay, team captain Danny Del Rio of Columbus gathered his teammates for a huddle.
“Cypress Bay is a three-time state champion,” said Del Rio, who usually gives his team’s pregame hype speech, “but tonight they are leaving this field as regional runner-ups.”
That was pretty big talk from a Columbus team that had never been past the regional semifinals.
But Del Rio, who got the game’s first goal, and Eddy Diaz, who got the game-winner in overtime, made those words sound prophetic, helping to end Cypress Bay’s season with a 2-1 win.
Next up for Columbus (20-4-5) is its first-ever trip to state in boys’ soccer. The Explorers will play Oviedo (21-0-3) at 3 p.m. Friday in Melbourne, and Del Rio and Diaz will again be two of the game’s key figures.
Neither is very big — Columbus coach Michael Stewart estimates that Diaz, a junior forward, is 5-9 and Del Rio, a senior midfielder, is 5-7 ½ — but both have blazing speed.
Del Rio said he and Diaz have had informal races, with each winning his share. But, with the ball at his feet, Diaz is the clear winner.
“I haven’t seen anyone on any team faster than Eddy with the ball,” Del Rio said. “Eddy is the most talented player on our team — no doubt.”
Diaz and Del Rio are a disruptive duo when it comes to opposing defenses. Diaz leads the team with 17 goals, and Del Rio is second with 15.
“Danny has phenomenal leaping ability,” Stewart said. “Eddy has unbelievable skill and technical ability. He’s deadly, putting the ball where he wants it.”
Diaz is the less vocal of the two, and he admits that Del Rio’s pregame speech on the night of the Cypress Bay game left him with mixed emotions.
“I was probably happy, but I was also thinking: ‘We haven’t done it yet. We have to prove it. We can’t just talk,’ ” Diaz said. “It added more pressure on us, but in a good way.”
Diaz and Del Rio joined the team three years ago, during Stewart’s second season as coach. That’s when most of the current players came on board — only senior midfielder Alejandro Pita remains from Stewart’s first team four years ago.
The progress had been slow before this season. In fact, the past two years ended without making it to regionals.
This season, though, came major breakthroughs — Columbus’ first district title in 25 years followed by the first trip to state.
It hasn’t been easy — Columbus has needed overtime to win its past four games — but the Explorers have rallied around each other.
“Danny always tells us that he would run back [on defense] for any of us,” Diaz said. “If any of us fall, we will never give up on each other. It’s a brotherhood.”
Del Rio said the other kids at Columbus have been supportive verbally, but it wasn’t until this playoff winning streak that they starting coming to the games.
“We had to earn their support,” Del Rio said. “But in the last game against Cypress Bay, we had more fans there than they did. Respect is earned, not given.”
On Friday, Columbus will try to earn some more — right after Del Rio’s gives his next pregame pep talk
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| FLORIDASCORES 1
February 14, 2014
7:55:33 PM
Entry #: 4113925
| Columbus 1 Oviedo 0
CONGRATULATIONS COLUMBUS!
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February 16, 2014
11:32:34 AM
Entry #: 4114014
| boys’ soccer class 5A state final
Columbus captures state crown
heads up: Columbus’ Casey Quintero heads the ball away from his own goal during Saturday’s victory in the state title game.
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heads up: Columbus’ Casey Quintero heads the ball away from his own goal during Saturday’s victory in the state title game.
Ryan Seeloff / for the miami herald
By BILL DALEY
Special to the Miami Herald
MELBOURNE It only figured that on a team putting on a most unlikely run through the state playoffs all the way to the championship game, that it would come down to a backup goalkeeper.
Carlos Rohl hardly saw the field during most of this magical playoff run for his Columbus Explorers soccer team. But when his big moment came, Rohl answered the bell in a major way.
With his team locked in a penalty-kick marathon with Boca Raton in the Class 5A state championship game, Rohl dove to his right, stopping a Liam Mahon penalty kick and then watched his players bull rush him and mob him in a massive celebration.
That’s because Columbus’ remarkable and unlikely run through the postseason came to a Cinderella conclusion Saturday night. After 100 minutes of scoreless soccer, the Explorers won the penalty-kick shootout to stun No. 1-ranked and No. 8 nationally ranked Boca Raton 1-0, 4-3 in kicks, at Eastern Florida State College.
The upset capped off an amazing day for boys’ soccer in Miami-Dade County as Columbus’ state title came just six hours after Gulliver Prep turned the trick, marking only the third time in history that two Miami-Dade boys’ programs won a title in the same year and the first time since 1999 when Gulliver and American did it.
“You dream about something like that, but you actually never really think you’ll be in that kind of a position,” Rohl said. “I still can’t really believe it. I just tried to keep calm. I don’t worry about anything else just focus on the kicker. I always try to read the eyes, but sometimes they like to go the opposite way, so I look at the hips, and I saw him open his hips one way, so I figured he was going to go left, and I got it.”
And it was actually Rohl’s second save in the shootout. Even more amazing is that Rohl actually switched off with another keeper, Stephen Milian, who also made a save on Boca’s first kick. Bryan Alvarez, who worked in front of the net all night and benefitted from some great Columbus defense, watched all of the PKs from the bench.
“I was taught about seven years ago that when you have two or three goalkeepers, you need to figure out what they can do,” said Columbus coach Michael Stewart, whose team finished 20-3-4. “Sometimes a guy coming off the bench is going to serve to help his team. You may think that by sitting there, they’re not watching the game, but they’re alert to what’s going on and what some players have a tendency"
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