Columbia – “It’s great to have redemption. Not revenge, but redemption.”
DW Senior Ezra White summed it up perfectly after Daniel beat Brookland-Cayce on penalty kicks to win the Class AAA Boys Soccer State Championship.
The win was a compensation after losing the state championship last season to the Brookland Cases. Since then, a return to the state final was on Daniel’s agenda and the Lions were sure they would see British Columbia again.
And the fact that they redeemed themselves made the win that much sweeter.
“Of course it’s (sweeter), man,” said coach Philip Boyer. “I told the boys last week that I was about to print a picture of Eduardo (Moisa Membreno) on a ghost body and then almost printed a picture of Ghostbusters to say that’s what we have to do this week.
“If we’re being honest, Eduardo has given some of my buddies nightmares from last year with the way he tore us apart. He’s an incredible player…so doing that against him and against BC, who beat us last season, it’s pretty cool. I also want to say I don’t. I can overestimate how much I respect coach (Matthew) Drabo and his program.”
More on Daniel: How a spring break trip made Daniel Boyz soccer ready to do something special
Tournament updates: LIVE UPDATES: SCHSL State Boys and Girls Soccer Leagues at Irmo High School
common: ACC Softball Tournament rules include a tribute to Lauren Bernett with a purple heart
Daniel got off to a great start with two unanswered goals in the first 20 minutes, but the rest of the match wasn’t easy.
Brookland and Case came back to lead 3-2 in the second half. Then senior assistant captain Liam Desjardins hooked it up again with an incredible free kick from 52 yards that sailed over the goalkeeper.
After an hour and a half of delays by lightning and two more times, the two teams remained on equal footing until penalty kicks, as young goalkeeper Coleman Wright came in.
Wright saved three of the four penalties, finalizing the match and the championship for the Lions.
“Coleman, holy crap,” said his young colleague Jonas Barrett, “Coleman was amazing.” “It was unbelievable. I have no words.”
“It’s such a blessing,” Wright said. “I remember sophomore year of coach boyer calling me and saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to need you, man. “Since then, I took over as goalkeeper. (This) is amazing for me now. I feel amazing.”
The pursuit of redemption on Brookland-Cayce was an incentive for Daniel, but the real catalyst behind this season’s push was the fact that this was Boyer’s last season with the Lions. He plans to go to Haiti with his family to help and support the community – he and his wife feel this is their mission.
Boyer hugged several players after the win. Even players who have only been with him for one season feel strongly about their coach and view him as a mentor.
“It was like a rattling in the back of your head whenever you got tired,” White said. “You do this sprint because you want to do it for Coach (Boyer), and you want to make the coach happy that we didn’t get it last year. But we knew we were going to get it this year.”
The Lions hat the season exactly as they wanted, with their shoulder slice. With Boyer leaving and an amazing senior class, Daniel isn’t planning on running away now that they’ve held the title.
“They have now left a legacy,” Chief Officer Tyler Brown said. Next year, I hope they can continue that legacy, get back to the state and win again.”
“We’ve already talked about it quite a bit,” rookie Jonas Barrett said of the future. “I’m excited for next year. It’s going to be a completely different kind of game that I feel like. Missing Ezra and William, the team can never be the same. But I feel we’ll still be a very strong team and hopefully we’ll be back next year.”
Joshua Miller covers high school sports for Anderson Independent-Mail. Do you have questions, story ideas, scores and stats related to high school athletics? Send it to his email at jdmiller@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter: NameIsJoshua