As they stepped onto the field, the boys’ middle school soccer team had earned a spot in the semifinals with a 4-1 winning record all season. On their home field, the Coyotes faced off against Imagine Kissimmee Charter Academy on October 9th.

After the Coyotes won the coin toss and chose to defend the right side of the field, the game began with a quick and energetic start. The ball was passed around by Imagine until the Coyotes put on the pressure and gained possession of the ball. With strong communication skill, the boys ran the ball up the field, past the defenders and scored the first goal only 3 minutes into the game.

“For us to get here well #1 we have a great goalie and #2 our team communicates well and passes to proper positions,” sixth-grader Anthony Dejesus stated.

As the game went on, fans were cheering and coaches were yelling advice to players on the field. Teammates communicated and passed the ball back and forth. Then, as the game heated up Imagine got closer and closer to the goal running up the field with the ball and scoring for their first goal of the game, tying up the score at 1-1 and taking the game into halftime.

“This is not the same team as the first game but its good, be excellent and win this game,” head coach Carlos Santos states.

As the coach goes on to explain who will be starting and what the positions will be, the referee blows the whistle and the second half of the game starts. Both teams run up and down the field and only a few minutes into the second half Imagine scores another goal by faking to one side then another causing the goalie to lose balance and miss the save. Shortly after Imagine Charter gained momentum, they responded with 3 more goals.

“Our team was tired and the defense is not working as hard,” 6th grader Dervan Brown confesses.

His statement seemed to be true because as the game went on Imagine pushed on and past the defense scoring again putting the score 5-1 in the 3rd quarter of the game. When the odds seemed to be against them, the Coyotes scored their second goal on a free kick. This time the goal was made by 8^th grader Mateo Cespedes. The score was now 5-2 by the time it was the final water break of the game.

“It’s 3 goals, that’s what you need, remember you are champions and champions have the hustle,” coach Carlos encouraged.

The whistle was blown to signal the 4th quarter of the game, the players headed out. Many were tired and worn out but the two teams continued to communicate and passed the ball. Imagine used this to run out the time. Although many attempts were made no more goals were made by either team before the referee gave the final blow of the whistle to end the game.

“Whether you won or lost the people came to support you,” coach Santos encouraged.

His encouraging words still couldn’t change the way some players were feeling, many were upset to lose after coming this far and many wished it were different.

“We didn’t play as well, we came out here and thought we were playing a normal team and it cost us the game,” striker Billy Chavarria painfully stated.

Making it to the semifinals and losing the game made their final season record 4-2. Despite their loss the Coyotes hope to have a better season next year with many more wins and hopefully making it to the semifinals for the 3rd year in a row.