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Solar eclipse: Local club turns lights off opponents in South Carolina
By Justin Thomas, jthomas@starlocalnews.com
When the Solar Chelsea '95 boys soccer team departs for Rock Hill, S.C. for the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships (July 25-29), the squad will be facing tough odds if they want to return to the Metroplex as national champs.
But being a longshot is nothing new for this club, which recently qualified for nationals last month by taking first at the Region III Championships in Greenville despite entering the tournament as the No. 12 seed of 16 teams.
"This will be the first time going to nationals for this group," said Nick Stavrou, Solar head coach. "But some of these kids have been playing together since they were 8 years olds and they've really evolved. The group has been together for a while now I think the chemistry is a real strength of the team."
In Greenville, Solar posted a 5-1 record, advancing out of the "group of death" in pool play and defeating Jacksonville United in the finals, 2-1.
"Nobody really expected us to do well," Stavrou said. "We were ranked 12th and last year at regionals we didn't win a match. So our confidence wasn't really even that high.
"But we started playing well early and it all kind of snowballed. We caught a few teams by surprise and then one after another we got on a roll. Of course you have to have a little luck. But we got a couple of wins, started to believe and gain confidence, and the next thing you know, a Cinderella was born."
After winning in the first round over South Carolina United FC 94, 1-0 on penalty kicks, Solar had its final result flipped in the second round as they fell short on penalty kicks against Tampa Bay United Premier. Needing a win to advance to the knockout round, Solar came through June 17 by winning yet again on penalties, topping Oklahoma FC, 1-0.
"They were real tear-jerkers," Stavrou said. "We had close matches in every game. A lot of them could have gone either way and came down to a goal or penalty kicks. But after playing a lot of competitive matches and making our way out of a tough bracket, the kids really started to believe and wanted to show everyone that we weren't pushovers."
After advancing to the elimination rounds, Solar found itself facing the defending national champions in the quarterfinals. But again Solar came through after playing three scoreless periods on the pitch to win on penalties, 1-0, over the Concorde Fire (Atlanta).
In the semifinals, the Albion Hurricanes (Houston) were in position to win after posting the game's first goal with seven minutes remaining only to see Solar even the score when Casey Eaton found the back of the net. Just moments after Eaton's goal, DeShawon Nembhard tacked on the game-winner to send Solar to the finals.
"What a great win that was for us," Stavrou said. "We had played Albion several times before but we had never beaten them. This was a very courageous win."
In the finals against Jacksonville United, Solar finally had the chance to play with the lead. Kareem Itani got the squad on the board before Eaton increased the margin to 2-0. Jacksonville later cut the deficit in half, but couldn't post the equalizer.
"We knew it was going to be a tough order," Stavrou said. "But after everything that had happened before, we knew we could just go after it and not leave anything back. They had an outstanding goalie that made it tough in the first half. But we were able to score a couple goals to get the lead and then held them off. It was very stressful from the first minute until the final whistle."
While Eaton led the club with four goals in the tournament, it was goalie and Coppell resident Dante DiCiolli who received the Golden Gloves award as tournament MVP.
"It was well deserved," Stavrou said. "He only surrendered three goals during the whole tournament and made outstanding saves in the overtimes and the shootouts.
"The whole team did a great job both offensively and defensively."
Stavrou also credited balanced scoring to strong play in the midfield.
"I really can't point to one or two players," he said. "We had to have all 11 on the field playing well and had to have a good bench. You have to have a deep team because guys are going to run out of steam or get injured. It just happens. But we had everyone step up."
Now Solar can shift its focus to nationals.
"We've played one team before in a showcase tourney, but everyone else will be new opponents," Stavrou said. "We're respectful of the teams we will be playing, but after this week, we aren't going to be in awe of any of them. We worked hard to get to regionals and are going to give the same effort at nationals."
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