Boys soccer: Santa Fe Catholic blanks All Saints in 2A-7 quarterfinals
WINTER HAVEN — After two four-win seasons in his first two seasons as head coach, Joey Dotson has the Santa Fe Catholic boys soccer program headed in the right direction.
The Crimson Hawks' 4-0 victory over All Saints on Friday night in the semifinals of the Class 2A, District 7 boys soccer tournament, what Dotson called a revenge game, gave Santa Fe Catholic its ninth victory of the season.
The nine wins are one more than the total of his first two seasons when the Crimson Hawks (9-11) combined to go 8-26-8. The win also broke a four-game losing streak. but the losses came against top teams, including Lake Gibson 1-0, Lakeland 2-1, and Fort Meade, 3-0.
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"We're building the culture we've been looking for," Dotson said. "I think it was mainly on me, the first two years learning how to coach. It's cliche but everybody says a good player doesn't make a good coach. It took me some time to figure that out. In this third year, I've learned a lot and I've been able to implement some things that would build us the culture we're starting to see."
Santa Fe Catholic needs just one more win for their first 10-win season since going 16-3-3 in 2015-16, Dotson's senior season. As a junior, Dotson led his team to a state runner-up finish.
The Crimson Hawks, however, will have their work cut out for them in getting that 10th win as they will face top-seeded Lakeland Christian at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. LCS won the regular-season meeting, 4-1.
Still, Santa Fe lost to All Saints, 3-1, two games after the loss to Lakeland Christian and have improved throughout the season.
"We have a great core group," Dotson said. "The middle of our field is really our heart and soul, from center back (Brian Tejada) to the two defensive mids (Joe Dickason and Beck Hendrix) to Aidan (Lausell) at attacking mid. That's our core. ... Then with Jonathan Earl and Alonzo Santamaria up top, I think those are the heart and soul that brings everybody together."
With the early-season loss to the Saints on their minds, the Crimson Hawks came out and played with a lot of energy. Santamaria scored in the 12th minute to give Santa Fe a 1-0 lead, and Lausell's team-leading 18th goal about three minutes later gave the Crimson Hawks a two-goal lead and allowed them to play with even more confidence.
"Tonight's game was a revenge game for us," Dotson said. "We lost to them earlier in the season, and we felt we didn't give our best performance."
Santamaria, Earl and Lausell put consistent pressure and gave All Saints defenders all they could handle.
Hendrix scored his first goal of the season late in the half to give Santa Fe a 3-0 lead, and Earl's seventh goal of the season less than two minutes into the second half closed out the scoring.
"Tonight, I saw a fire in them that if we can play with that fire throughout, we can play with anybody," Dotson said.
All Saints had bursts of offensive attacks with a few good scoring chances, but the Crimson Hawks' defense turned them all away and quickly went back on the attack. It's been a rebuilding year for the Saints, who won the SSAC title earlier this month and finished the season 7-9-1.
"All we've done the last two years is graduate players," All Saints coach Nigel Boardman said. "It's one of the things about small schools. You have a good team that comes through and you have good years. Then you have years where you're a young team and rebuilding."
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Boys soccer: Santa Fe Catholic blanks All Saints in 2A-7 quarterfinals
