Published: May 10, 2008 12:52 am            

Tears and cheers

Southeast loses title on PKs, but celebrates season

The Southeast Raiders took boys soccer and their school’s athletic program further than ever before this season.

But at the end of the road, Lakeside-DeKalb and goalkeeper Alec Kann — all 6 feet, 4 inches of him — stood in the way of Southeast’s last step toward what would have been the school’s first state championship in team sports.

Kann stopped three penalty kicks and Lakeside won via shootout 3-1 in the Class 4A state championship on Friday at Raider Stadium, a game that ended scoreless after 80 minutes of regulation play and 10 minutes of overtime.

Minutes after the match and the presentation of the runner-up trophy cup, the Raiders mixed tears and smiles in the wake of a successful season with a finish just short of ideal.

“(In the postgame huddle we talked about), the difference between winning and claiming victory,” Raiders coach Jamison Griffin said. “And we claimed victory here tonight. It’s been just a great, great ride.

“The only difference between us and Lakeside is they got a bigger cup, and that’s not taking anything away from them — I think they would say the same thing. Both teams came out here tonight and just put everything on the line.”

But the Vikings, 4-0 in shootouts heading into the title match, separated themselves at the end to win the program’s seventh state title and its first since 1997.

Although Kann had started and spent most of the match at midfield, he donned a green keeper’s jersey and took his physical presence and a dose of confidence into the net with the title on the line.

With Lakeside lined up first for the shootout, Martin Gonzalez converted for the Vikings and Victor Rodriguez answered for the Raiders, but both keepers made solid stops on the next turn. Southeast keeper Jesus Serna stopped an attempt from Amadu Ndaiye, the ball bouncing off his hands after the shot tailed slightly to his right, and Kann stretched out his left leg to kick out a shot from Fernando Villaseñor.

Serna’s save gave Southeast’s fans a brief boost in the dramatic matchup and knocked a little wind out of the Vikings’ sails.

“When Amadu missed his, and that’s the first time he’s missed one all season, everybody for just a second (looked like) ‘Maybe the magic’s worn off,’” said Vikings coach Rick Barbe, who is in his fifth season leading the team. “Then Alec comes up with that big save and, once you had that, you could see everything change.”

The Vikings didn’t miss again, with Taylor Cardwell and Drew Roach burying shots into the net, and Kann had two more saves up his long sleeves — he had to go to his left to stop Luis Hernandez’s attempt and barely had to move to block a must-make shot from Carlos Flores that hit him in his midsection.

With Lakeside’s past success in shootouts (including a 5-4 result against Starr’s Mill in the quarterfinals), Kann said he walked into the box Friday with no worries on his mind — such a switch has been the normal strategy for Lakeside in PK situations this year. He took the place of teammate Yonathan Arroqui, who had played solidly while making seven saves during the match but is under the 6-foot mark.

“We know we have the players who can take the penalties and we’re going to score,” said Kann, a Furman University signee who normally plays keeper with his club team. “So it’s just a matter of me making one or two decent plays and we win.”

Roach, whose conversion put the pressure squarely on Southeast, felt similarly. But he complimented the fight the Raiders gave the Vikings on the way to the shootout, including a second half in which the Raiders turned up the pressure and increased their offensive chances

After a 7-6 advantage in shots on goal in the first half, Southeast outdid its visitors 10-4 in the final 40 minutes of regulation.

“They’re a great team,” Roach said. “They had good ball control and they deserved to be here. We played our style, they played their style and it just went to our favor.”

The Vikings, who used counterattacks and set plays — mostly throw-ins from Gonzalez, a long-range threat with the capacity to find the keeper’s box from near midfield — to fuel their offense found the finishing tough against the Raiders, who had prepared for such situations in the two days of practice they had between the semifinals and championship.

“They were big, tall guys and we knew that was coming to us, we knew they could throw it a mile in the pitch,” said senior defender Pedro Almazan. “But we worked on it pretty good and we did great defending that.”

Southeast’s late offensive pressure had no payoff, though, despite several good opportunities set up by Rodriguez’s quickness on the wing and the perseverance of 6-foot-2-inch Eduardo Guerrero, whom the Vikings found hard to stop up on runs up the middle.

But the Raiders weren’t able to carry that pace into overtime, where the Vikings had the best shot, a header from Cardwell that went high and right in the first five-minute period before the scoreless match eventually gave way to the shootout.

As far as Barbe was concerned, that wasn’t such a bad place to be. It was the Vikings’ third straight match that required more than regulation play and the past two had worked out just fine.

“The two five-minute overtimes are a little bit nerve-wracking,” said Barbe, wearing a state championship hat fresh from the box and still bearing a tag. “We beat Whitewater scoring in the last minute of the second five minutes on Tuesday to avoid PKs, but with somebody like Alec, you’ve got to be confident.”

Even with the loss, the Raiders took comfort in their effort, the goals met this season — among them a Region 7-4A championship and the first win against cross-town rival Dalton in 14 years — and the fact that future Southeast teams have been shown what’s possible.

“I look back and know it’s the best season Southeast ever had,” Rodriguez said. “I enjoyed it and I think everybody enjoyed it. I’m pretty sure this year is going to set an example for the rest of the seasons. The ones that are staying know they can get this far. It’s been done and I know they’re going to fight for it.”

Southeast, which will compete in Class 3A next season, became the second local boys prep soccer team to advance to the Class 4A championship this decade. Dalton’s boys made back-to-back appearances in the title match in 2003 and 2004, sharing the title with Heritage of Rockdale County in ‘03 and finishing runner-up to Woodward Academy the following year.

        

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