Eastern Conference
In the first ever Panhandle Cup, Tallahassee SC defeated Pensacola FC 5-1 on a hot Saturday night at Florida States Sports Club Fields giving them their first victory in club history. The first matchup between these two Panhandle rivals featured a lot of offense from the Tallahassee club but it was the visiting 59ers squad who found themselves on the scoreboard first. In just the 5’ minute of play, Pensacola’s Michael Lightbourne put the ball past the Battle Lions keeper giving them the early 1-0 lead. The Pensacola lead wouldn’t last long, however, as Michael Seng connected with Noah Voyles in the 8’ minute of play for the equalizing goal, tying the match at 1-1. The rest of the match was completely controlled by TLHSC who continued to play aggressive and bring the pressure. Their aggressive play would pay off in the 13’ after Forward Daniel Villa scored on a one on one chance against the 59ers keeper. The Battle Lions aggressive style of play continued to pay off as the game went on with their third goal coming in the 39’ from Sy Fontenot who cleaned up a cross that was punched away by the keeper. Another one of Tallahassee’s goals came just 4 minutes later in the 43’ when Adam Donaldson split the defense and buried the ball in the back of the net giving the Lions a sturdy 4-1 lead. To seal the first win in club history and to give the Lions a much needed 3 points, Sy Fontenot scored his second goal of the game in the 85’, ending the game in a 5-1 victory over Pensacola FC.
Rivals AFC Mobile and Port City FC went head-to-head on Saturday night in the first leg of the Forgotten Coast Cup at Archbishop Lipscomb Stadium. Taking charge of the match early, the Sounders started the game immediately on the attack and had the Alabama squad on their heels. Even though the first half belonged to Port City in both possession and opportunities, it was AFC Mobile’s Tillman Schober who found the back of the net in the 44th minute with a low hard shot that rolled right past Sounders keeper Grant Adam giving Mobile a 1-0 lead going into halftime. Once the second half started, Port City came out the same way they did at the beginning of the match; aggressive and on the attack. Unfortunately, the Sounders continued to struggle as they found themselves down 2-0 in the 50th minute after an unexpected own goal. Shortly after the Port City own goal, in the 58th minute, Mobile’s Arad Lev-Ari stormed down the right wing past the Sounders defense to put in AFC Mobile’s third goal of the match, giving them a 3-0 lead with 30 minutes left in regulation. Port City refused to give up and was finally able to put some points on the board after Jordan Hall buried a penalty kick in the 80th minute, but it wasn’t enough to beat the competitive club from Mobile. At the end of regulation, the final score was 3-1 as AFC Mobile takes the first leg of the Forgotten Coast Cup.
Looking to keep their unbeaten streak alive, the Gulf Coast Rangers battled against Hattiesburg FC on Saturday at Fairhope Municipal Stadium. The Rangers squad featured some new young talent with seventeen year old Sergi Cebrian starting at center midfield for the first time this season. The team from the Coast came out strong in the first half as their first and only goal of the game came in the 8th minute from a David Hall header after a Jordan Sinclair corner kick. After scoring the only goal of the match, the Rangers squad began to settle in and completely take over the game defensively. HFC fought to regain confidence and established good ball possession in the last 10 minutes of the first half but just couldn’t buy a goal. The Rangers back five kept HFC’s frontline under control for the rest of the game as they continued to play well throughout the second half. Frustration began to set in for Hattiesburg FC late in the match, leading to a red card in the 86th minute that left them playing with only 10 men for the remainder of the match. Recording their first shutout of the season, the Gulf Coast Rangers were able to hold onto the 1-0 home victory against the men from Hattiesburg.
Western Conference
The top of the table met the bottom of the table in the Western Conference as Shreveport United hosed BOCA FC at Lee Hedges Stadium. On Wednesday night, the Boca Knights came ready to play and were eager to keep their winning streak alive as they beat Shreveport United 5-1. Rafa Muniz was the leading goal scorer for the Boca club, scoring two of their five goals in the 58’ and 67’ minute. Muniz’s fellow Knights joined in on the scoring sheet with the other three goals coming from Quesi Weston (29’), Pedro de Sliva (42’) and Luis Pena (75’). United struggled to find the back end of the net throughout the match but found a spark of hope in the 60’ minute with their only goal of the game coming from a penalty converted by Gary McCormick. Sadly, one goal would not prove to be enough to beat the red hot Boca Knights.
With the GCPL season finally in full swing, Louisiana Krewe had their home opener on Saturday night hosting the Alexandria Pool Boys. The Krewe put on a show for their home crowd this weekend as they defeated the Pool Boys 3-1. Louisiana was assertive and fast on their feet throughout the whole match. In the 21’ minute, for the first goal of the game, Erick Medina sent a beautiful through ball past the Alexandria defense right to Adrian “Oli” Rodriguez who beat the keeper and calmly finished the ball home, making it 1-0 Louisiana. The next goal for the Krewe came in the 33’ minute from another excellent through ball pass from Medina to Dillon Gallet who cooked the ball into the left side of the net past the keeper. Louisiana’s third and final goal came from Mauricio Rancel in the 57’ minute, giving the Louisiana club a dominant 3-0 lead with 33 minutes left in regulation time. The Pool Boys were able to avoid the shutout with a late goal in the 86’ minute from Mackenzie Young but the late goal wasn’t enough to avoid the loss. Overall, it was a very competitive match and now both teams are tied for second place in the Western Conference.
Central Texas Lobos hosted Cajun SC Saturday night with both clubs coming off of home losses the prior week. A much needed win for both teams was on the agenda, but it was the Lobos who came out early swinging. In the very first minute of the game, Jordan Guardado put the home team on the board, giving the Lobos a 1-0 lead. Much of the first half saw the Lafayette boys keeping possession with a few chances being denied by the Lobos defense led by keeper, Blake Lander. The second half saw a slew of chances for both sides with Cajun almost finding their equalizer in the dying minutes of the game. The last chance for Cajun saw center back, Aaron Boudreaux, head home what looked to be a for sure goal, but an acrobatic display by Lander, kept the clean sheet and gave the Lobos their first 3 points of the season.
Central Conference
The GCPL league leaders, FC New Orleans, hosted the 2017 champs, Gaffa FC, on their home pitch at Muss Bertilino Stadium on Thursday night. The long awaited matchup between these two Central Conference clubs was an entertaining one as these two teams battled it out neck and neck. Gaffa FC was the first team to strike in the 5’ when Chance Bourdene headed to ball into the right side of the goal off a corner kick. Even though the NOLA club found themselves down by one goal early, they battled hard and went on to score the next two goals of the match. The first one of these two goals came in the 47’ by Gilberto Perez Dominguez and the other goal came in the 60’ by Gustavo Castillo Garcia who gave FC New Orleans the go-ahead 2-1 lead over the Jackson squad. At this point in the game, FC New Orleans looked confident on the pitch and possessed the ball with ease. Unfortunately, the confident New Orleans team made a costly mistake in the 75’ that send Craig McCabe to a penalty shot. McCabe booted the ball in the bottom left corner of the goal past the New Orleans keeper, tying the game 2-2. The rest of the match was a stalemate as both teams had chances to take the outright lead. At the end of regulation, the score was still 2-2, ending the game in a draw.
Sitting at first place in the Central Conference, Northshore United headed north to Millsaps College on Saturday to face off against the 0-2 Mississippi Blues. The Blues were looking to come home with their first 3 points of the season but found themselves down early when United’s Cameron Robinson grabbed his second goal of the year in the 13’, easily scoring from inside the box. The rest of the first half was well defended by both squads as neither team let up a goal until the second half of action. Northshore extended their lead to 2-0 and got the breathing room they were longing for in the 78’ when Andrew McInnis met a corner kick with authority, sinking the ball forcefully in the back of the net past the keeper. In added time, the third and final goal of the match came from Andrew McInnis yet again after he capitalized on sloppy play from the Mississippi backfield. This is where the game would end and where Northshore United would take a 3-1 victory over the struggling Blues club to be crowned top dog in the division table.
The club at the bottom of the division standings, Baton Rouge United, traveled to Pan America Stadium on Saturday to square off against Motagua New Orleans. Baton Rouge is off to a very rough start to the season and has scored only one goal in their last three games. During this Louisiana matchup, the storyline remained the same for the boys from Baton Rouge. They found themselves in a hole early on as the New Orleans squad scored goal after goal. The Motagua club scored a whopping 8 goals in 90’ minutes of action. Forward Carson Gorecki put away three of the eight goals from New Orleans, earning himself a hat trick. Samir Aruz also had a phenomenal performance with two back to back goals in the 47’ and 53’ minute. Their other three goals came from Kenroy Rodriguez (39’), Nestor Peralta Jr. (77’), and Steven Morris (88’). In conclusion, the team from NOLA walked away victorious after a great team effort to secure the 3 points for the home team.
