2005-2006 Louisiana High School Athletic Association Soccer PlayoffsBoys Division I:
Finals:
March 4, 2006
Louisiana-Lafayette Soccer Complex
Carencro 3 Fontainebleau 1
Carencro muzzles Bulldogs - Fontainebleau falls in bid for state titleTimes-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) - Sunday, March 5, 2006
Author: Billy Turner Staff writer
LAFAYETTE -- Carencro forward Sean Broussard lay on the field in pain in the 59th minute of the Nokia Sugar Bowl Division I State Soccer Championships on Saturday night.
His leg was rigid with cramps, and two teammates ran to him to immediately began pressing the toes back to relieve the pressure.
But he was smiling all the same.
"The feeling was unbelievable, even though my leg started cramping before I kicked the ball," Broussard said.
Broussard gathered a bouncing ball off a free kick, slid under two Fontainebleau defenders and sliced the ball into the left corner for a 2-1 Carencro lead.
The Golden Bears added a late goal for a 3-1 victory at the Louisiana-Lafayette Soccer Complex to decide the state's Division I boys title.
Carencro finished the season 23-8-1, but won 10 of its final 11 matches. At one point during the season, they lost six consecutive matches and were 3-4 in district.
A change to keeper Steven Rosser and better defense turned Carencro's season around. Defense, likewise, was the key to the match against Fontainebleau, even as Broussard was selected the game's most outstanding player.
"We thought coming in defense would be the key," said winning coach Kert Talley. "They have two excellent players in the middle in No. 10 (David Gourgues) and No. 12 (Garrett Jackson). They do a lot of things with them off quick passes. We thought if we could separate them we would be okay."
The Golden Bears were able to accomplish that goal.
"We played a great team," Jackson said. "Our midfielders tried to deliver the passes, but it was very difficult to get it to us because of their quickness."
The teams scored in the matches' first 34 seconds and the first half's final 38 seconds.
In between, defense dominated. Fontainebleau struggled to get anything going offensively.
The teams had six shots each in the first half, with both keepers, Rosser of Carencro and Taylor Hovis of Fontainebleau, getting a couple saves.
The large Fontainebleau (25-9-1) contingent had barely begun to settle in when Carencro's Blake Comeaux headed in a throw-in from Trevor Thomas. The match's first run down the field resulted in the score.
"We've done that before," Fontainebleau coach Budd Ditchendorf said. "But this time we were playing a quality team that wouldn't allow us to come back."
In the 19th minute, Carencro got a shot off Hovis's hands, and while Golden Bears players were moving to kick the rebound, Fontainebleau's Pierce Langridge, a junior, kicked the ball out from just in front of the goal.
The 1-0 score held up until Fontainebleau's Chad Hrapmann beat Carencro defender Eric Tabor and Rosser to score with 38 seconds remaining in the first half to tie the score at 1.
"I knew the time was running out, so why not go all out," Hrapmann said. "He (Rosser) didn't get a good grip and I got it out and scored."
But that was it for the Fontainebleau offense. The Bulldogs had more shots than did Carencro -- 14-12 -- but only had a couple more serious threats. Carencro had six shots on goal to the Bulldogs four.
With the score 2-1 with less than five minutes remaining, Jackson had a deep throw-in that Gourgues headed toward the goal. But it soared just over the net.
Minutes later, Carencro's Jake Hebert scored an unassisted goal to seal the victory.
"I think our age finally caught up with us," Ditchendorf said. "I think you could ask any of our guys and they would tell you that they all had something better they could give."
Fontainebleau surpass all of its season goals - Playing in state championship beyond everyone's expectationsTimes-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) - Thursday, March 2, 2006
Author: Billy Turner Staff writer
Above Fontainebleau coach Budd Ditchendorf's computer is a framed quotation: "You can tell how big a person is by what it takes to discourage him."
Fontainebleau's soccer players are officially big. They've taken discouragement and disappointment and laughed at it.
This is no unbeaten or near-unbeaten soccer team playing for the Division I state championship at Louisiana-Lafayette on Saturday at 7 p.m. against Carencro.
Try this:
When Ditchendorf met with his players and parents for the first time before the 2003-2004 season, he talked about a 25-year plan. "I believe in stability," he told them. He didn't tell them he would produce a state-championship caliber team in three seasons.
Good thing.
Two seasons ago, in Ditchendorf's first season as varsity coach, the four seniors on the current Bulldogs team were on a team that finished sixth in district. With St. Paul's, Mandeville, Northshore and Covington the powers, moving ahead seemed impossible.
But they did it.
All the way to fifth place in district last season.
Two seasons, no playoffs.
Before this season, Ditchendorf gathered his troops that included seniors Garrett Jackson, a forward, Jeremy Oats, a defender, Brett Kloor, a forward, and midfielder Ryan Lester.
He had the team set two-year goals.
They did. Monstrous ones at that. The goals? To finish second in District 5-I and win a playoff game. For next season, the team set the goal as making a run in the playoffs. "A run was maybe making the quarters or even the semifinals," Ditchendorf said.
When the team lost six straight matches in midseason, even those modest goals seemed lost.
Well, throw out the goals.
A dose of belief, renewed life in a keeper, a raised level of play and, voila, Fontainebleau's boys are playing for the state title. That's something Fontainebleau's boys have never done.
It has Ditchendorf scratching his head and smiling a lot.
"These guys had seen their share of losing, but losing has not affected the team at all. They've seen it as another opportunity to see where we need to get better.
"It's not just losing," Ditchendorf said. "We've been down late in games, like in the Captain Shreve one (where the Bulldogs scored with less than 20 seconds remaining to send the match into overtime, where they won in penalty kicks), and it doesn't bother them. You could see Jesuit was bothered. Zero yellow cards to five yellow cards was the result. We just don't get flustered."
Things changed on Dec. 6. That day Fontainebleau beat Mandeville. That showed the players they could indeed meet the first goal they had set. Then the Bulldogs beat St. Paul's in the district's second half after losing 7-3 to the Wolves in the first half. That showed them they could even exceed their modest goals, perhaps, though Ditchendorf said they never mentioned that at all.
Just before the St. Paul's match, goalkeeper Taylor Hovis, a junior, moved from the bench to the starting lineup. Hovis has been a big part of the Fontainebleau surge.
"I had used him off and on in the early part of the season," Ditchendorf said. "Denton Gottung was the starter. Taylor emerged shortly before the second St. Paul's match. I knew it was going to be all about him wanting it. When he wants it, he's one of state's best. He had to prove that to me. That can be more demanding than any game. He needed to get right with me. He has."
Other contributors include Oats, who has had a "dream season for a defender," Ditchendorf said. "(Garrett) Jackson has been just as big.
"Those two guys have orchestrated a whole lot of success."
All this has got the school excited. The girls soccer program, which has a state title in its past and was unbeaten until the playoffs, has had this type of notoriety. The boys haven't.
"I think it gives boys sports more identity here," Ditchendorf said. "To have the girls dominate was a point of motivation for boys soccer . To see other sports moving in a positive direction like football is important. We all begin to feed off each other. No one on this campus wants to be just a one-sport success story."
Maybe they should set some modest goals.
Fontainebleau drops Jesuit - Focused Bulldogs earn historic victoryTimes-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) - Sunday, February 26, 2006
Author: Billy Turner Staff writer
Sometimes it comes down to focus.
Jesuit lost its focus, Fontainebleau didn't.
Thus, in a battle of second-chance teams, Fontainebleau defeated Jesuit 2-0 in the Division I state soccer semifinals Saturday at Pan American Stadium.
The Bulldogs (25-8-1), who won their quarterfinal match on penalty kicks, advance to the first boys team state championship game in school history. They will play Carencro at 7 p.m. Saturday at Louisiana-Lafayette. The championship match was moved from Tad Gormley Stadium because of Hurricane Katrina.
Jesuit's unbeaten streak ended at 49 matches. Of course, it had ended earlier this week in a 2-1 loss to Lafayette. But Lafayette had to forfeit the victory because of an LHSAA violation, and Jesuit came into Saturday's match with the Bulldogs 16-0-1 and still defending its 2005 title.
Fontainebleau almost didn't make it to the semifinal match. The Bulldogs trailed Captain Shreve 2-1 with less than 20 seconds remaining Tuesday until it got a goal and unexpected life, then won on penalty kicks. Fontainebleau goalkeeper Taylor Hovis, who blocked shot after Jesuit shot, saw it not as a second chance, but "taking advantage of your first chance."
In any case, the Bulldogs did what they had to do to advance, something Coach Budd Ditchendorf said has become commonplace with this team.
"I'm numb," Ditchendorf said. "I just didn't think this was going to happen. We know we're going to play our best. We don't daydream about the score."
Jesuit, on the other hand, struggled early. "I think it was very difficult for us to get refocused after what we've been through this week," said Jesuit coach Hubie Collins. "Players had gone through the loss and thinking they were done for the season. We were just off our game."
Fontainebleau was aggressive on offense early, when the Bulldogs usually go through a feeling-out period of sorts during matches. It paid off when just five minutes into the match Matt Chugden headed a ball into the left corner for a 1-0 lead.
From there it was defense, taking away every chance the Blue Jays came up with in their spacing game, then turning it over to Hovis for the save much of the time.
Hovis took a kick to the chin in the second half, but he played on despite the injury.
In the second half, Jesuit had five shots on goal that were either missed or saved by Hovis before Fontainebleau -- concerned about defense and the lead -- took a shot. But it was a shot that made the difference.
In the 58th minute, "their goalie didn't see me because they had a taller defensive guy in front," said Fontainebleau senior forward Brett Kloor. "I yelled, 'Brooks (Hickman),' and he got the ball to me. I came away with something that meant a whole lot to me and a whole lot to the team."
From there, Fontainebleau cruised. "I felt we were in control the whole game because as we kept playing, they kept getting more and more mad. And the madder they got, the worse they played," Kloor said.
N.O. teams have down year - Only three teams make state finalsTimes-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA) - Thursday, March 2, 2006
Author: Pierce W. Huff Staff writer
It was a fitting ending to a year that was that the greatest high school soccer season in New Orleans history.
Last year, the members of the Jesuit soccer team joyfully mugged and pranced around the field at Tad Gormley Stadium with the Division I state championship trophy after its 3-2 overtime victory against Lafayette to complete an unbeaten season. The game was the last state championship match of the season, as New Orleans hosted five of the six state championship matches. Nine local teams played in the boys and girls finals of the three divisions with five teams winning state championships, including Newman, which won the Division III boys and girls titles.
But what a difference a year makes.
This year, New Orleans is no longer the center of the powers in state soccer , and there are plenty of reasons why, ranging from Hurricane Katrina to the lack of a soccer seeding system to dumb luck, area coaches said.
The only local teams playing for state championships this weekend are the Fontainebleau boys (Division I) on Saturday in Lafayette and the Newman and Sacred Heart girls teams, which play for the Division III championship Friday in Lafayette.
New Orleans has the fewest number of teams playing in the finals since 2002 when the Louisiana High School Athletic Association went to three divisions in boys and girls soccer . This is first year since 2003 that the area doesn't have at least one team in every state championship match. It is the first year since 2001 that state power Jesuit isn't in the state championship match and the first year since 1998 a Catholic League team isn't playing for the boys Division I title.
There is no doubt Katrina had an impact on local teams. The hurricane shut down some public and private schools for months. Some of those schools weren't able to reopen until late December.
Defending Division I state champion Jesuit (16-1-1), which lost in the Division I semifinals, didn't play its first game until Dec. 26 and finished the season with 14 fewer games than last year when it was 30-0-2.
"We started two months behind, and I'm certain that played a part in it," Jesuit coach Hubie Collins said.
Defending Division I girls state champion Mount Carmel, which lost to Barbe in the Division I regionals, started in January because of Katrina and only played 11 games this season.
Newman's boys and girls soccer teams, the defending state champions in Division III, didn't start practicing until late December and didn't have their first game until January, a month that is usually the midway point in the season. The Greenies girls soccer team (7-4) has played in 11 games this season.
"From the start of January, the clock was always ticking," Newman girls soccer coach Patrick Summerour said. "We didn't have the time to work on things like we would in a normal season."
Summerour said all of the local schools lost people who didn't come back because of Katrina, but he also said, "I think it's unfair to say that New Orleans teams didn't get (to the finals) because of Katrina."
"There were a lot of other things."
Some coaches pointed to the lack of a seeding system for the state soccer playoffs as another reason why local teams failed to reach the finals.
"Because there is no seeding for soccer , you have the better teams drawing each other in the early rounds," Collins said.
Mount Carmel lost to Barbe, which is ranked fifth in Region II in the National Soccer Coaches of America Association/adidas rankings, 3-1 in the Division I regionals. Jesuit won by forfeit against Lafayette, ranked third in the regional poll, in the Division I quarterfinals.
Then there were five local teams that lost one-goal matches in the semifinals, including four boys teams (Brother Martin, Ben Franklin, Newman and St. Martin's). Brother Martin lost to Carencro 2-1 in double overtime in Division I. Ben Franklin lost to East Ascension 1-0 in Division II. In Division III, Newman lost to top-ranked St. Louis 1-0 and St. Martin's lost to Teurlings Catholic 2-1.
Mandeville coach Sean Esker, whose team lost to Barbe 1-0 in the semifinals, said, "maybe this was the year for the teams in our area that the ball just didn't bounce our way. In my experience from both the winning side and falling short, you have to be lucky and good at the same time to win the championship."