Boys Soccer: Hurricanes come up short in repeat bid

Palm Harbor University boys soccer players, sometimes stumbling along the way but always fighting from whistle to whistle, saw the defining moment of four months and 30 games worth of effort come down to the crapshoot results of a penalty kick shootout.

After battling Boca Raton (19-6-2) to a 1-1 tie for 100 minutes of Class 6A state championship soccer Saturday night at the University of Tampa's Pepin Stadium, the Hurricanes' bid to win back-to-back titles ended by watching the Bobcats celebrate as they had a year prior on the same turf..

Boca players stormed the field toward goalkeeper Brian Kilgallon after PHU senior Patrick McDonald's penalty kick sailed high over the crossbar, ending the shootout at 3-2.

McDonald's was strangely the third miss out of five attempts for PHU in the shootout.

"All year we've made all our PKs, all except one," senior forward Ben Sweat said. "I don't know what happened, probably the pressure."

Sweat expressed his disappointed with the loss and a championship game decided by kicks.

"This is my senior year and this is my last high school game," he said. "I've got more club games, but that's what's killing me the most; that we finished our senior year that way. The game was determined by PKs."

Sweat opened the night's scoring by staying onsides to find the back of the net in the 26th minute.

PHU (21-6-3) held that 1-0 advantage into halftime and appeared to be on their way to a Class 6A state title over Boca Raton, exactly as their female counterparts had done last weekend.

The Hurricanes defense and midfield repeatedly thwarted Boca attacks, led by sophomore Robert Sennabaum, who was all over the field in the physical contest.

Not only did PHU look to be holding its lead, it almost added to it in the 58th minute.

Sennabaum was brought to the turf by a Bobcat defender that set up for a direct free kick from about 30 yards out. Sweat took the kick and slammed a left-footed shot off the crossbar that rattled the entire cage. Sweat, along with his teammates and bench, thought the ball - which deflected primarily downward - snuck under the crossbar enough for a goal. Officials, though, did not.

Boca Raton then took full advantage of the situation.

At what first looked to be the harmless start of a set play two minutes later, the Bobcats' Kevin McEntee dribbled toward the right corner in PHU territory. Instead of sending a cross into the box, McEntee chipped a perfectly arched shot over goalkeeper Josh Paul's leap and into the left corner to tie the game.

"A couple minutes after (Sweat's free kick) we lost possession at midfield, (McEntee) took it down and that changed the momentum of the game," PHU Coach Alex Delgado said.

From that point until the end of the second overtime, PHU continued to create opportunities but simply could not stick in a second goal.

Perhaps the best of those chances came in extra time of the second half. Sweat weaved through a pair of defenders and found sophomore Charlie Hales with a clear look from the right side of the goal box but sent his attempt high and wide.

McDonald nearly ended the game in the second overtime with a header from a Sweat corner kick. Sweat, a USF commit, was in on virtually every PHU opportunity. With a minute left before penalty kicks he nearly connected with Jesse Caron trying to get loose, but Kilgallon came out to cut off the play.

"We still created opportunities and we had chances tonight," Delgado said. "But it just wasn't our night."

PHU actually took control early in PKs. Sweat scored the first goal and then Paul immediately stoned Boca's Jeff Madsen, but Kilgallon - a freshman - answered right back by stuffing PHU midfielder Ryan VanSchaick. The Bobcats took the 2-1 lead with McEntee's goal, Sennabaum tied it at 2-2, and then Boca's Colby Burdette made it 3-2 to set up McDonald's and PHU's last stand.

A win would have made the PHU soccer program only the second ever to win back-to-back boys and girls state championships in the same two years. Melbourne High School accomplished the feat just hours before when its boys beat Seminole 4-1 before PHU and Boca Raton took to the field.

"The feeling right now is like we just got our hearts ripped out, but that's how soccer goes," Delgado said of the loss. "The one thing you can't take away from these guys is that they fight. They fought tonight from minute one until the last whistle and it showed. Tonight we fought for 100 minutes."

"We had a couple unlucky breaks there with a couple chances to put the ball away, but we didn't do it. PKs are part of the game. We've been practicing them all year and we were just unlucky tonight."

BOX SCORE:

Palm Harbor- 1 - 0 - 0 - 0 --- 1
Boca Raton- 0 - 1 - 0 - 0 --- 1 (PK 3-2)

SCORING:

Goals

Palm Harbor - Ben Sweat (26th Minute)

Boca Raton - Kevin McEntee (60th Minute)