Strawberry Crest was determined to hand the Plant City boys their first loss of the 2016-17 season on Friday, Jan. 27. But with the district title on the line, the Raiders came through for another win.
Plant City was able to win the 5A-6 title at home, sending “Raider Nation” into a frenzy. But the Chargers never made it easy, taking the game as far as it could possibly go.
“It was a battle that Friday night,” Plant City head coach Caleb Roberts says.
After a scoreless first half, Gabriel Aguilera was able to put Crest on the scoreboard with 23:15 on the clock. But the Raiders answered quickly with a goal of their own, coming at the 21:34 mark on an Epifanio Castro free kick that bounced just over
goalie Luis Enriquez's hands. Both teams then ramped up the pace of the game, determined to take the trophy home as soon as possible.
Roberts says that Daniel Guerra’s presence was the biggest thing the Raiders had to adjust to.
“When we played Crest the first time, they did not have Danny
Guerra,” he says. “He is one of the better players in our district … he’s a very skilled, very fast player.”
For all the scoring chances the teams had, nothing seemed to work out. Players went offsides or
committed fouls before shots found the net, or were simply stuffed by the goalies. Two periods of golden-goal overtime couldn't end the match, nor could the first five rounds of the shootout.
Callum Seitzer, Julio Rodriquez, Randall Sapp Jr. and Justin Garcia scored for Crest, while Eric Ugarte, Ronaldo Rodriguez, Elvis Castro and Jair Garcia scored for Plant City. That brought the shootout to 1-v.-1 rules, where one make was all either team needed to win.
After Hector Flores Jr.'s kick missed, Adrian Olivo was called upon to shoot for the Raiders. The sophomore was able to put the ball past goalie
Jonathan Mesa-Alarcon, locking up the title for Plant City and sending himself and his teammates to
regionals with some hardware to show for it.
“The great thing about Adrian is, Friday, his name didn’t get called during the run of play in the game,” Roberts says. “He was ready to come in the game, but the game didn’t call for his style. When we went to penalty kicks, there was no one else I’d rather have taking that sixth one, when it’s a one-in, one-out situation, than the placekicker of our football team.”
The win brought Plant City’s record up to 14-0-1 (5-0 district), and also marked the second time the Raiders had gotten the better of the Chargers this season: on Thursday, Nov. 17, Plant City went to Dover and picked up a 2-0 win, thanks to goals from Ugarte and Rodriguez.
Plant City’s offense had little
trouble getting on the scoreboard this season, averaging 4.1 goals per game and scoring 62 total through 15 matches. The Raiders also
averaged just over three assists per game. Ugarte, Rodriguez and Omar Mendoza are the team’s three 10-plus goal scorers, and Ugarte — who has a team-high 15 goals — also leads the team with 12 assists.
The team has three past Plant City Times & Observer Athlete of the Week selections in Ugarte, Garcia and Olivo.
Roberts, formerly the Plant City girls’ coach, took over for Chris Black in the offseason and guided the team to its best season since 2010-11, when the Raiders had an 11-1-1 (6-0 district) record.
“We’ve been keeping everything the same,” Roberts says. “The biggest thing we’ve been preaching this year is, ‘Let’s play our game, our system, and see what happens.’ There’s no reason to adjust what we’re doing against any other team — make the other team adjust to us, for the first time.”
The Raiders have adopted a high-pressure style of play, using speed and physicality to wear opponents down. Despite the increase in physicality, Plant City has only received
five yellow cards throughout the season.
“We’re not going to back out of any tackle, whether it’s a center back or a forward,” Roberts says.
It’s also been one of the school’s best regular seasons ever: according to Roberts, no other Plant City
program has finished a season without any losses.
“It feels humbling to know that so many years have gone by at this school, and no one has been able to be as consistent at these kids this year,” Roberts says.
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.
