MONTVERDE, Fla. – Overcast skies, a steady rain: the unpredictable Florida January weather was on display Thursday, yet the results of the first round of the 4^th Annual Montverde Academy Soccer Tournament ended up being quite predictable.

In each of the four first-round, the favored team won, setting up a blockbuster semifinal round Friday with SIMA FAB 50 No. 1 Montverde Academy (Monverde, Fla.) vs. No. 12 Hamilton (Chandler, Ariz.) and No. 9 Cathedral (Los Angeles, Calif.) vs. No. 19 Coppell (Coppell, Texas). Friday’s winners will meet Saturday night for the MAST title.

With five SIMA FAB 50 Top 25 teams in the eight-team event, two Top 25 teams were forced to square off Thursday, and that match was the only one with any drama.

Cathedral keeper Kris Guerra delivered a pair of saves in a shootout, carrying the California program to a shootout win over No. 21 Gulliver Prep (Miami, Fla.) following a scoreless match.

In other first-round contests, Hamilton scored a goal in each half to defeat unranked Auburndale (Auburndale, Fla.) 2-0; defender Griffin Jaska scored twice to lead Coppell over unranked Melbourne (Melbourne, Fla.) 2-0; and Leonardo Novaes and Andre Shinyashiki each scored twice as Montverde handled unranked Alief Elsik (Houston, Texas) 5-1.  

STARS OF THE DAY

1. Kris Guerra, Cathedral. Simply put, without the senior keeper, Cathedral would be playing in the consolation round. Guerra made a superb tip over the cross bar of a high driven shot by Gulliver to maintain a scoreless regulation. Due to the tournament format, the match went straight from regulation to a shootout, where Guerra correctly dove to his lower left to smother shots by two of Gulliver Prep’s top players. A third Gulliver shooter hit the post. Cathedral’s Daniel Huizar, Jose Cano and Nomar Ibarra had each converted their attempts, giving Cathedral a quick-as-possible 3-0 shootout victory. Guerra is uncommitted.

2. Leonardo Novaes, Montverde Academy. The junior factored in three goals, although only two counted for Montverde Academy. Novaes constantly got behind the right side of Elsik’s defense, resulting in several scoring chances. His first goal made it 2-0 Eagles about 10 minutes into the match. Elsik’s only score in a 5-1 loss occurred when Novaes knocked in an own goal while defending a corner kick. He quickly atoned for that mistake with his second goal in the first half, extending Montverde’s lead to 3-1 and the Eagles were in control the rest of the way. Novaes is uncommitted.

3. Andre Shinyashiki, Montverde Academy. If it wasn’t for a defender’s leg here or a goalkeeper’s lunge there, this senior forward might have scored five goals himself against Elsik. The highly courted player did manage to score twice in Montverde’s 5-1 win, but he created about six other scoring chances that were close calls – many of them resulting in Montverde corner kicks. Shinyashiki showed his ability to create chances in tight spaces, and putting quick shots on target. Shinyashiki is uncommitted.

4. Griffin Jaska, Coppell. Set pieces are more important than ever in the high school game, and Jaska displayed his intelligence in pushing up from his defensive position to cash in restarts. Jaska scored both Coppell goals in 2-0 win, both coming as scrums in front of the Melbourne goal, when he finished. The senior defender with exceptionally high standardized test scores is uncommitted.

5. Jack Lipman, Hamilton. Lipman started out as a right back. But at times moved to right midfielder, center mid, and even into forward roles. Although he did not find the net, his play all over the field was impressive and helped Hamilton to a 2-0 win over Auburndale. The senior is being courted by NCAA Division II programs.

6. Dylan Brown, Hamilton. Hamilton had the better of the play against Auburndale, but it was Brown who was responsible for cashing in the goals. He set up Adrian Moran’s opening goal by taking a corner kick. He later scored Hamilton’s second goal to clinch the match. Brown is a junior.

7. Daniel Huizar, Cathedral. Huizar took most of Cathedral’s dangerous restarts, but his real value was unshakable confidence in a shootout win over Gulliver Prep. Huizar went lower right with his shot, and Gulliver’s keeper was there to knock the ball away. However, the official made the rare call that Gulliver’s keeper moved to early, and awarded Huizar a second chance. “I got lucky,” he said after the match. “But I wanted to prove him wrong.” So, instead of shaking it up, Huizar again when lower right, which the Gulliver keeper had no chance of stopping. Huizar’s conversion gave Cathedral a 1-0 lead after the first round of penalties and jumpstarted the 3-0 PK win. The former LA Galaxy Academy player, who has seven goals and three assists this season, is an uncommitted senior.

8. Jared Williams, Melbourne. Seldom do keepers from losing teams get acknowledged, but without Williams, Melbourne might have lost much worse than 2-0. The uncommitted senior made a big save, then two quick reaction saves to keep the match 1-0 as long as possible. 

NOTES

* Thursday’s match between Coppell and Melbourne provided an interesting coaching matchup. Coppell’s Chad Rakestraw and Melbourne’s Jerry McCabe had coached together in the past for the US Youth Soccer Region III ODP program.

* Elsik coach Vincenzo Cox said his team’s trip to Florida marked the first time about six or seven of his team’s players have ever been on a plane. “Most of them never get out of Houston. This is good for them,” said Cox, a former track standout at the University of Houston who had professional soccer tryouts following his Olympic Trials track effort of 1996. Cox used one of his Houston connections to score tickets for the Elsik players to Wednesday night’s Orlando-Houston NBA game in Orlando. 

* Gulliver Prep played Thursday without UCLA commit Alberto Poleo. Poleo was injured in Gulliver’s 2-0 win over North Broward Prep right before attending MAST. Gulliver coach Matias Asorey opted to rest Poleo this week in order to have him back for the postseason, which starts next week.

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