Frostproof soccer honors former teammate with upset of Fort Meade to win district title
FORT MEADE — The last time the Fort Meade and Frostproof boys soccer teams met, it wasn’t even close. That wasn’t the case for Thursday night’s Class 3A, District 6 championship game at Frank S. Battle Field.
Frostproof rallied from an early deficit and eventually avenged a big regular-season loss to rival Fort Meade 4-3 in penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in regulation. The victory, however, had even more meaning for the Bulldogs.
"We lost to PKs last year in the district semifinals to Fort Meade," Frostproof coach Gio Fazzini said. "The penalty kicker that missed the last PK was Jose Torres, who passed away during the summer. This year would have been his senior year, and the boys really wanted to win districts for him in his honor."
Jose Casiano scored the winning penalty kick after a spirited back-and-forth game that rightfully survived both 10-minute overtime periods to reach the deciding shootout.
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Fort Meade (10-7-1) struck first with just under 3 minutes left in the first half when Dylan Flores headed in a corner from Emmanuel Beltran to make it 1-0.
That ended a half that was dominated by the Miners.
The momentum shifted in the second half as Frostproof (9-9-2) applied pressure, just missing high on shots from Marcos Islas Badillo and Omar Valencia.
Casiano hit the goalpost on a corner with 14:30 left, then was in on the game-tying goal just five minutes later. He fired in a free kick from 20 yards out that hit off the keeper and rebounded to the foot of David Garcia for the equalizer with 9:40 remaining.
Fort Meade was hampered by a rash of cramps that affected some key players and Fazzini thinks that helped spark his squad.
“I feel like things started to shift our way in the second half when their players started cramping up,” he said.
Fort Meade head coach Lynn Haase also noticed the shift in energy.
“Throughout the game we matched the energy, but in the second half their style of drawing fouls and creating set pieces led to their opportunity,” he said. “I thought my defense held well. Unfortunately we had a bad set play. Both teams were there for a reason, but when we don’t finish our chances these results can happen.”
The teams had a history before this year of going to penalty kicks in the playoffs as Fort Meade ousted Frostproof last year in the district semifinals on penalties. This year it was the Bulldogs’ time to return the favor.
“Our team played their hearts out,” Fazzini said. “We always have a physical match with Fort Meade so I had a feeling it might go to PK’s because they have such a good defense.”
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Frostproof upsets Fort Meade to win boys soccer district title
