Owen McCall
Staff Writer In Motion
Every season must come to an end. Every sport must crown a champion and head into the offseason to prepare for the next year.
Championships are an exciting time of the season, since it is the swan song that ends the year. People always want them exciting and this 2018 is no exception.
Although the city of Daytona Beach is no stranger to hosting national championships — The NAIA- National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics has hosted its national football championship here since 2013 — but we’re talking about a different type of football.
Association football, known as soccer in the United States, came to Daytona State College Nov. 12-17 for the first time. But that might also be because DSC did not have a playing field until last year when it launched its first season of soccer.
Probably because of the new state-of-the art field, the National Junior College Athletic Association, better known as NJCAA, hosted its men’s soccer tournament here last month. DSC President Tom LoBasso and Athletic Director William Dunne oversaw the tournament.
“There was an open bid, so we put in a letter requesting consideration. We made the cut and a site visit was taken” said LoBasso on the selection process. “Interestingly enough, the field wasn’t built yet. We showed them the plans, and had some renderings done. The Convention and Visitors Bureau helped us out a lot. They showed that we had hotels that could house that many players and that there were activities to do between games. A few months later, we were informed we would be hosting 2018.”
LoBasso also said that Daytona State has put in a bid to host a future women’s soccer tournament and that the national feedback to the facilities has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We benefit because we have a great staff, great logistics, an amazing hospitality program and one of the best college soccer stadiums in the country.”
He added that the growing reputation benefits the college because it is being shown on a larger scale, with both the NJCAA Men’s Soccer National Tournament and the cross country team receiving national attention.
The day before the tournament, an opening banquet was held in the Mori Hosseini Center and, said LoBasso, on “It went over very well. We were told it was the best banquet facilities they’ve had in a long time. They said they sometimes have the banquet in the gym of the host school!”
Tournament participants were Barton Community College and Cowley College in Kansas, Community College of Baltimore County-Essex from Maryland, Eastern Florida State College from Melbourne, Georgia Military College, Marshalltown Community College in Iowa, Monroe College from The Bronx, Muskegon Community College from Michigan, Northeast Texas Community College and Tyler Junior College in Texas, Pima Community College in Tucson, and St. Louis Community College from Missouri. Georgia Military College may sound familiar to Daytona State fans since the Falcons played them twice during the season, tying GMC in Milledgeville and beating them in Daytona.
The first match of the tournament kicked off at 9:30 a.m. Nov. 12, with Pima downing Muskegon in a 5-0 shut-out. Pima won behind three goals from Itsuki Ishihara. Pima was able to make it all the way to the finals, topping Monroe College by a score of 1-0 in the semifinals on Nov. 16.
The other team in the finals was Barton Community College. Barton defeated Eastern Florida State 4-2 in the semifinals. They scored three goals in the span of two minutes to nab the win, and gain the chance at competing for their first national title. This is the Cougars first tournament appearance since 2010, where they placed third. Barton defeated what many perceived to be a superior EFSC team, as with Pima, who people thought beat a much better Monroe team.
The stage for the national championship was set. The Daytona State soccer stadium was draped in sunlight at the kickoff, which was at 3 p.m. Nov. 17. Felipe Baeza was in the goal for Barton, with Nils Roth in the goal for Pima.
Before the match, the National Anthem was sung by Daytona State’s Shades of Blue a capella group. Its performance went over very well with the crowd, which was full of Pima fans.
In the first minute of the match, it was evident why these were the two teams in the national championship. Both Barton and Pima showed disciplined and skilled ball handling and both teams were playing a physical defense. The first half went by quickly, with both goalkeepers looking lonely because most of the action took place around midfield. When a team did get down near the goal, the other team would bat it away. Both Pima and Barton left several plays on the pitch, with many missed opportunities due to in the moment miscalculations or miscommunication among the players. In the 15th minute, Barton defender Robin Rouaud received a yellow card penalty.
Defense was the story of the first half, which ended scoreless. Members of the men’s and women’s soccer teams at Daytona State were in attendance at the game and men’s soccer player Dakotah Casale had this to say:
“It’s kind of disappointing we didn’t make the tournament. I think we had a great team that could’ve competed.” There’s a lot of good teams and good players. These teams are here because they worked hard. Everyone thought Eastern Florida was going to win, but Barton worked harder.
“Pima is one of the best teams out West. They have a lot of difference makers,” he added.
Casale also commented on the performances of Barton and Pima in the first half by saying, “I think there’s too much defense. Both teams are playing a bit too conservatively.”
After halftime, the second half featured much of what was seen in the first opening minutes. Both teams continued to move the ball quickly, with the defense being very present.
In the 62nd minute, Pima’s Jacob Pacheo received a yellow card penalty and Barton’s Tevin Rochester was able to score on the penalty kick after Pima goalkeeper Nils Roth guessed the wrong direction. Barton led 1-0. The two teams returned to the back-and-forth style of defensive play they’d been playing all game long, with a long stretch of no scoring.
By the 65th minute, Pima’s Javier Vega got a red card ejection for an illegal hit on Barton’s Damia Viader. Vega was escorted off the field by an assistant at Pima and he was not seen in the stadium for the rest of the night.
It seemed Barton could have put it away, but in the 78th minute, Isaias German scored an unassisted goal for Pima, tying the score up at 1-1. Barton and Pima both made attempts as the clock wound down to put it away, but they couldn’t. At the end of the 90-minute regulation, it was a 1-1 draw, and the game went into overtime.
NJCAA overtimes in soccer are 10-minute periods. Overtime is sudden death, meaning if a team scores, the game is over. The sun went down, the stadium lights came on and night fell over the match.
The first overtime ended scoreless, but the desperation in both teams was prevalent. It was going to come down to who wanted it more. Pima evidently because in the second overtime, Hugo Kametani scored the game winner in the 106th minute. Kametani was also named Player of the Tournament because he scored the winning goal for Pima in three games during the tournament.
“I didn’t see the goal” said Kametani after the game. “I thought I kicked it over the goal, but when my teammate Ricky Gordillo ran over and hugged me, I knew I scored it”
Goalkeeper Nils Roth after the game said that, “They had 11 players on the field, we had 10. We’ve won 17 in a row now. We had a chance to score, and we took it.”
Before going to Pima to play soccer, Roth served in the Swiss Army. Of the 15 shots on the goal Barton took, including the two overtime periods, Roth allowed only one goal and had eight saves. Barton’s Felipe Baeza had eight saves on Pima’s 12 shots on the goal, allowing two goals to be scored.
This is the farthest Pima got in the tournament since they lost in the championship game in 1999. According to the NJCAA, this was the first time since 2011 the national championship featured two teams that had never won before. Head coach David Cosgrove was there for the 1999 game in his second season as the Pima head coach. It took 21 seasons, but Pima achieved its first national title in program history.
Cosgrove was named Coach of the Tournament, and is the all-time winningest head coach in Pima Community College history. In 2013, he was inducted into both the NJCAA Soccer Hall of Fame and the Pima County Hall of Fame.
“We lost the championship game in 1999 and haven’t been this far since,” Cosgrove said to In Motion. “For everyone involved in this program for the last 20 years, this is a great reward”
Championship games are bittersweet. As exciting as the match may be, it’s also the end of a season. The dust has settled and Pima Community College will the take the NJCAA men’s soccer title back to Arizona.
Daytona State’s Soccer Stadium will remain empty until the start of the next season in August. But for now, fans have 2019 to look forward to. 2019 is proving to be a season of optimism because both men and women’s programs at Daytona State have lots to build off.
Who knows? Maybe Daytona State will be the ones holding up the trophy at the end of next season.