Awe had already struck Key sophomore Teo LaPointe long before the goalkeeper stepped in the cage to face the first Friends penalty kick.
A year ago, then-senior Angus Lunt-Woodward prevailed in the same situation — a post-overtime shootout that would determine whether his team could claim the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association C Conference title. LaPointe, Lunt-Woodward’s successor, moved up from junior varsity, suffering the expected bumps of the transition earlier this fall but surviving.
He filled his predecessor’s shoes nicely Sunday, helping win a second consecutive MIAA C championship with a 3-1 edge in penalty kicks over Friends. The teams played to a scoreless tie in regulation and overtime before the deciding shootout.
“I can’t believe we got this far honestly,” LaPointe said. “It’s amazing.”
Sophomore Ben Harcourt finished Key’s first penalty kick, the result of a “brain break” in the far corner of the pitch that Rainey had given him earlier in the game.
Nico Zapata, the center back who cramped Key’s offense all afternoon and suffered a bloody face for it, lined his shot directly down the middle and right into LaPointe’s arms and Key secured its advantage.
The Quakers stopped the second and third Key shots, but only landed one of their next two. Obezags senior Alex Bubnov drilled his between keeper Michael Shiner’s legs. LaPointe stuffed the next. Then, senior Jack Moran sent his top bins. When he turned to run, his teammates already rushed toward him, screaming.
“Full on grit, the entire team,” LaPointe said.
Last year’s win that garnered Key’s first title since 2013 felt special, coach Jake Rainey said. But this one, with all the adversity they faced, was different.
Eleven seniors will turn in their Key jerseys for the final time, including Bubnov, a Ukranian war refugee. A knee dislocation sidelined him in early September.
“Seeing him go down, we had to play the season for more than ourselves,” Fisher said.
The Obezags were without sophomore Anthony Aguilar, too, until the quarterfinal round on Monday, when he scored a goal and set up another to win, 2-1. Rainey returned his captain armband. Bubnov was cleared two days later and netted a hat trick over Beth Tfiloh. Their composure and leadership added new life to the rest of the team, Rainey said.
The coach always tells his team that they may not be the most technical on attack, might not be the cleanest on defense, but he didn’t need that from them. He wanted a team willing to learn.
He developed them to the point he could deploy all 25 of them in the final and keep his players’ legs fresh as a result. He brought in Key girls soccer coach Steve Horrigan, who led his team to a title last Sunday, for extra guidance, too.
“When it comes down to the playoffs and championships, you want your whole family,” Rainey said. “Anyone who’s contributed to this program, you want them there with you.”
The MIAA awarded LaPointe (seven saves) MVP honors. All season, other MIAA C Conference coaches asked Rainey where he kept making these keepers. He’d tell them they didn’t even have a backup. They’d simply find a talented athlete, teach him and refine him with feedback.
“He’s had challenging moments, blunders that can happen. But he’s growing and learning so quick,” Rainey said. “This was his most important game he’d ever played and he was so sure-handed.”
LaPointe did not stand alone.
In the first overtime, Friends sophomore Qadeer Aslam sprinted into the box, and LaPointe lunged forward to stop him. As they collided, the battle rattled loose, back into Quaker possession. The shot beat LaPointe. It did not, however, beat Fisher, who leapt between the posts and launched the would-be game-winner away.
The senior hunted down the next Friends drive, too, crashing senior Sebastian Egginton out of bounds. Fisher and other backs like Jeffrey Mullin, Harcourt and Alex Neenan, snuffed countless Friends attempts all game. A physical contest from the start, the Quakers channeled their aggression into heavily pressing the Obezags defense, upping in intensity in the second half to all but contain play to their attacking third.
Fisher and the other defenders read Friends’ offensive strategy plainly: a through-ball through the back line.
“They’d overcommit on offense, too,” Fisher said. “We tried to exploit that a bit. We didn’t get to it as we’d liked, but we were able to defend it pretty well and lock them down.”
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