By Nick May ’13
THE ROUNDUP
Brophy soccer earned a spot in the final match of a Florida tournament by defeating the No. 1 team in the nation 2-0 in the semifinal.
However, they were unable to get past the tournament hosts, Montverde, in the final Jan. 12 and lost 3-1.
Riggs Lennon ’13 opened the scoring in the final match against Montverde by heading a cross in from 10 yards out to put Brophy up 1-0.
Montverde responded with three goals and Brophy wasn’t able to recover.
“We had them in the first half,” said head coach Mr. Mark Kelly ’87. “They came out in the second half and had us and proved to be the better team.”
Clarence Clark ’13 helped in Brophy’s shut outs in the two games leading up to the final.
“I am very happy with our teams performance,” said Clarence Clark ’13 “We came in being the under dogs, people were saying that we hadn’t been challenged yet here in Arizona, so going and performing like we did was awesome.”
Mr. Kelly was also full of praise for the team after their performance in the tournament.
“I think the outcome was a fair result,” Mr. Kelly said. “We were the second best team in the tournament and we progressed well throughout the tournament. I’m proud of all of them.”
Clark was also able to achieve his personal goal for the tournament of making the All-Tournament Team.
“It was an honor, it was my goal to before coming into the tournament, because I also got the same award last year and I wanted to get it again,” Clark said.
Clark said Brophy went to Florida with something prove and perhaps earned their best result in recent history.
“We won the championship my sophomore year, but going and playing the No. 1 team in the nation and beating them, and then losing to the No. 2 team in the nation in the final, to earn second place is by far the best result in my four years of playing,” Clark said.
Brophy also beat American Heritage 4-0 in the quarterfinal Jan. 10.
The goals in that match came from Lennon who had two, Colin Jackson ’13 with one goal and Oliver Shanks ’13 with one goal.
“I think the team comes away from this experience knowing they can run with anyone, anywhere. I think that’s a real benefit going into the state tournament,” Kelly said.
