- November 5, 2024
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Tuesday night’s Region 2-3A semifinal game between Matanzas and Seabreeze was nothing short of a battle.
It was the fourth time the teams met this season, with Seabreeze winning the first three. In fact, those three games were Matanzas’ only losses this season.
This time around, though, the tables turned.
Matanzas rallied to score a late goal and then the game-winning goal in overtime, beating Seabreeze, 2-1, and ending the Sandcrabs’ season. It was the first and only loss for Seabreeze.
“They’re a heck of a team,” Matanzas coach Rich Weber said of Seabreeze. “We have two different styles, but it’s awesome. ... It’s a battle every time.”
The first half of the game went scoreless. Peter Filipovski scored midway through the second half to give Seabreeze a 1-0 lead. Then, with about 10 minutes left on the clock, Dakotah Casale tied up the game for the Pirates.
By this time, both student sections had vacated their seats at the Ormond Beach Sports Complex to lean on the field’s fence, getting closer to the action.
At the end of regulation, the score remained 1-1, and déjà vu was setting in. Overtime play would start. (The teams battled through 20 minutes of overtime in the district championship on Jan. 24.)
The intensity was stepped up a notch in the 10-minute overtime and, as the clock counted down, Casale sunk another shot.
The Pirates took the win.
“The final thing was the crowd,” Weber said. “This was a home game for us — that crowd was phenomenal and (the team) fed off it. At the end of the second half and into the overtime, our guys who had played the whole game were dragging, and (the crowd) picked them up.”
Pirate Nation, as it has become known through a Twitter hashtag trending in Flagler County, has been huge for Matanzas athletics.
“The school is a young school, and it’s been dying for some positives,” Weber said.
Matanzas will travel to Sunlake, in Land O’ Lakes, at 7 p.m. Friday, Feb. 7, for the Class 3A regional championship.
