JL Mann Patriots cap undefeated season

By Roger Lee

Contributing Writer

Columbia - J.L. Mann had a fast start in the 5A, Division 1 Boys Soccer Championship May 23 and held off a feisty Ashley Ridge team in the second half to complete an undefeated season.

The Patriots (26-0) capped their season with a 5-3 win over the Swamp Foxes (22-4) at Memorial Stadium in Columbia to secure the division State Championship.

“I’m so happy for this group,” said J.L. Mann coach Brenden Jones. “The joy of that buzzer going off, I’m just so happy for them. They worked hard all season to do what they did, which is something historic for this program that had never went a full season without losing. What a great way to cap off a season.”

J.L. Mann entered the game as the state’s top-ranked 5A team while Ashley Ridge was ranked third for the class. The Patriots are also ranked above the Swamp Foxes in the national polls. Just how high above depends on which poll, but basically both teams can be proud of their rankings.

“J.L. Mann is highly ranked nationally for a reason,” said Ashley Ridge coach Nate Harris. “The fact that my kids were down 3-0 to that team and came back the way they did, I can’t be any more proud of them. I asked them to give me everything they have and they did. A couple of bounces this way or that way and it could have been a tie game. That’s just the way soccer is.”

The Patriots received two goals from senior Timothy Reardon and a goal each from junior Smith Darby and seniors Luke Pietrobono and Nico Ortiz. Darby is team’s leading scorer this season, but his goal in the championship game didn’t come until well into the second half.

“The beautiful thing about this team is it has never been about one guy,” Jones said. “In years past, we may have kind of relied on one guy to do it tall. We had a number of goals scorers today and that just shows that it’s the pieces around a good player that can really make a team.”

With just more than 28 minutes remaining in the opening half, the Patriots made a fast run at the Ashley Ridge goal. Pietrobono sent a shot into the net to open the scoring.

Approximately six minutes later, a J.L. Mann player made a wide pass to the right that drew Ashley Ridge goal keeper Keith McCune out of goal. It was a race to the ball that J.L. Mann’s Reardon just won.

He sent what looked like would be a cross toward the goal, but the ball took a meandering curve toward the left corner of the net and no Ashley Ridge defender could get to it before it rolled in for a 2-0 Patriots’ lead.

Despite both having to deal with a bright sun shining in their face for part of the game, which McCune got the worst of in the first half, McCune and J.L. Mann’s Rodrigo Fuentes both had a strong game in goal.

The Patriots made it 3-0 five minutes into the second half when Ortiz got a second-chance shot following a corner kick and scored.

However, the Swamp Foxes continued fighting and got on the scoreboard with 28:50 remaining. Following a throw in, Beckham Harris passed to Joshua DeSouza in front of the goal and the junior found the net to cut the lead back to 2.

It didn’t take long for the Patriots to answer as Oriz passed to Reardon for his second goal.

It took even less time for Ashley Ridge to answer Reardon’s goal. Junior Aiden Butts had an assist on a goal from DeSouza. DeSouza’s second goal of the evening cut the lead to 4-2.

Darby got into a one-on-one with McCune with just more than 17 minutes remaining and used his chest to send the ball into the net for a 5-2 J.L. Mann lead.

The final goal of the night came in a similar manner as Ashley Ridge sophomore Austin Fuller got a one-on-one with Fuentes and scored with just under four minutes remaining.

“We had the skill so it came down to how hard we would work and how bad we wanted it,” Jones said. “This is a resilient team and that is what you need to win a state championship. Ashley Ridge has excellent guys up top who obviously can score so to be able to hold them to three goals is impressive from our back line.”

For the Swamp Foxes, it came down to missed opportunities.

“There are 11 kids on the field so it’s not one person or one thing that went wrong, but there were definitely opportunities we had,” Harris said. “The thing is, they came in and represented their school well. We weren’t over matched.”