It was an eventful Friday evening at Haskell Field: the varsity boys soccer team beat the Tampa Catholic Crusaders, the senior night ceremony recognized a remarkable group of athletes, a fight broke out on the field, the school’s power went out, and the Chargers finished the regular season with an undefeated record for the first time.

     The Chargers trotted out a starting lineup featuring nine seniors integral to the team’s success, a group that has advanced past districts their past three years at Shorecrest.

     Senior captain Ludvig Ronngard started, despite having a sprained ankle. He took the opening kickoff, cheers from friends and family echoing from the bleachers, and was then substituted out.

     The Crusaders attacked at the beginning of the game, but after a save by senior keeper Sam Reeder, the Chargers had the advantage for the remainder of the first half.

     They had their first chance at a goal in the 18th minute with a header by freshman Jackson Stier off of a corner kick, but the Crusaders’ keeper dived and saved it.

     In the 33rd minute, senior Noah Jaffee booted a long cross pass from the far side of the field, which found the head of junior Charlie Cowan. The opposing keeper couldn’t stop this one. The ball bounced over his head and out of reach. Senior Akshay Pudur jumped into Cowan’s arms, and the team celebrated its lead. 

     Nothing changed much at the onset of the second half. Cowan, freshman Drew Ellis, and senior captain Manny Escamilla all had shots that missed the net.

     The narrative of the game shifted in minute 53. After grabbing the ball, an opposing striker ran into Reeder. Defending his teammate, Stier pushed the Crusaders player, prompting a scuffle between the sides. Players shoved and exchanged words with each other, and Stier was given a yellow card. 

     “It was a stupid moment where things got a little heated, and that’s not what we’re trying to do as a team,” Reeder said.

     Following the melee, the Chargers kept their composure, along with the lead. Suddenly, the stadium lights shut off. The players halted as the bleachers went silent. The field was left pitch black, and nobody had a clue what was going on. 

     Reeder said, “It was crazy. It was definitely unexpected. It was really cool to see all the fans there with their flashlights out. That was definitely a great moment.” 

     Ultimately, the game was ruled over with a score of 1-0 due to an outage that temporarily left over 19 thousand St. Petersburg residents without power.

Player of the game: Charlie Cowan

     Cowan scored the only goal of the match: a remarkable header off of a long pass. This was only his second goal of the season and the third of his high school career. He also did a fantastic job of distributing the ball to other attackers and setting up other players all over the field. Reeder said, “We’d get him the ball, and he’d slip Noah [Jaffee] and Akshay [Pudur] in on through balls, and he’d set up attacking runs.”

Standout performers:

Sam Reeder: 

     Reeder had three saves in the match. He kept a clean sheet, his seventh of the season.

The entire back line:

     The Chargers defenders, Stier, senior Leighton Williams, sophomore Andrei Imensek, and freshman Antony Krastev were stellar at not allowing the Crusaders to have any sustained attacks and cleaning up any mistakes that made it through midfield.

Head Coach Jason Montoya:

     Montoya was able to adjust the Chargers’ game plan to the opposing attack, which initially broke down the Chargers’ front lines. He kept the team cool and composed after some heated moments and directed the players’ heads toward doing their best to win the game. Following the scuffle, Reeder said, “Coach Montoya took everybody into the circle and broke it down for us what we needed to do for the rest of the game.” To recognize the team’s seniors, he had some new faces in the starting lineup, as well as an injured Ronngard.

Recap:

     On senior night, The Chargers prevented chances in the midfield and moved the ball around, leading themselves to a gritty 1-0 win over Tampa Catholic. The Chargers finished the regular season at 10-0-1 and will look to continue their success in the playoffs. They play next on Thursday, January 23rd in the district semifinals against Clearwater Central Catholic, who they have already beaten 3-0.