Cougars will play LaBelle on Saturday for region title
SARASOTA
The Cardinal Mooney boys soccer team was determined Wednesday night to achieve what its girls Cougar counterparts accomplished on Tuesday night.
Earn a spot in the Class 2A-Region 3 semifinals.
Sebastian Marin’s team did so in dominating fashion against visiting Clewiston, registering a 4-0 shutout on the Mooney pitch and guaranteeing a spot in Saturday night’s semis.
While the Cougar girls will host Fort Myers Bishop Verot on Friday night, the Mooney boys will host LaBelle, a 4-0 winner over DeSoto in Wednesday night’s other quarterfinal.
Mooney improved to 13-6-3 despite missing its best defender, Danny Kukanza, who was suspended for an altercation in the Cougars’ district-clinching victory over DeSoto. His suspension has been appealed and Marin hopes to have him back for Saturday night’s match.
“Missing one player is not that big of a difference ... but we’ve been really focused coming into districts,” Marin said. “We have a good deep bench and we made some subs and the subs came in and performed. The main thing is the focus of the boys. They’ve been really determined.”
Mychael DePrato, Brandon Boynes, Ryan Veitkus and Ryan Blechta scored the goals for the Cougars, whose defensive effort made the night relatively easy for goalie Matt Doyle.
In fact, if not for the efforts of Tiger tender Jose Benitez, the score would have been more decisive. With his team trailing 2-0 in the first half, Benitez stopped Boynes once and Garret Turner twice from inside the box.
The Cougars took a 1-0 lead in the fourth minute when Boynes fed DePrato, who maneuvered a bit in the box before rifling a shot past Benitez into the far corner.
Twenty-six minutes later, beautiful passing between Trevor Yull and Veitkus was followed by a pretty feed to Boynes. His shot from about 20 yards out beat Benitez for a 2-0 Cougar lead.
In the second half, the Tiger defense let its goaltender down. In the 58th minute Veitkus went in alone on Benitez and beat him to the far side. Seventeen minutes later, Blechta broke in and his shot found the back of the net for a 4-0 lead.
Afterward, Marin again praised his team’s focus.
“When a team loses a player, teams kind of get down on themselves,” he said. “These guys did the opposite. They stood up to the challenge and performed very well. I’m very, very happy, especially under the circumstances.”