District soccer: Leonard boys beat Palm Beach Central in dramatic penalty shootout
ROYAL PALM BEACH — John I. Leonard's boys soccer team emerged victorious from a penalty shootout after a 2-2 (5-4 PKs) draw in Friday's district semifinal against Palm Beach Central.
There was moxie, perseverance, star power and a touch of January magic from both sides in what became an instant classic.
“We knew we were dominating,” John I. Leonard head coach Carlos Alas said. “We said, ‘We're not going home with our heads down.’ I have to say this is the result we were expecting. We didn't really think we were going to go to ‘pens.’ But the win, we were expecting. We told ourselves, ‘This one's ours,’ and we made it ours.”
Jeff Santos took the long walk to the spot from midfield with the game on the line during the shootout.
And he smiled.
That's when Alas said he knew the senior would ice the match.
“Jeff is one of my captains because of his mental fortitude,” Alas said. “He brings the team up. He's always out there guiding them. And he said: ‘Let me be the fifth one. Let me be the hero if I need to be.’ He was ready. I could see the smile.”
Julio Torres and Santiago Zambrano scored for Leonard in the buildup to the crucial shootout.
The three-seed Lancers went up three times, and three times the Broncos battled back — twice, Central equalized despite being down a man for much of the second half.
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“We got down 1-0, showed a lot of character, came back and tied it up,” Palm Beach Central head coach Thomas Dawkins said. “To get down 2-1 in overtime and tie that up being a man down, that says some character about the team.”
It was Edian Diaz who twice leveled the score, turning in a herculean effort despite the loss.
“I felt that I didn't play as good as I could,” Diaz said. “Once I felt that first goal go in, I just knew we were going to come back and do what we could.”
Central dominated in a 4-1 win when these two teams met early in the regular season.
Since then, the Lancers have gotten three important role players back from injury — while the Broncos battled both injury and sickness entering the postseason.
While Leonard earned a match against Royal Palm Beach in the district finals, Central will have to hope that they've done enough to earn an at-large bid.
“Nothing is guaranteed, but I feel pretty good that our work up to this point will get us in,” Dawkins said. “But it's a long wait to find out.”
For the Lancers, next week's district championship offers a chance at redemption against the top-seeded Wildcats.
“Last year, we hosted districts and they won the district trophy on our field,” Alas said. “So, we're looking to flip the tables now and come back on Tuesday and do to them what they did to us.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: John I. Leonard boys soccer defeats PB Central in PK shootout
