Bell downs Wilson for 2009 DCIAA boys soccer crown on Guevara penalty strike

By Charles Boehm, Potomac Soccer Wire Sr. Writer

Every November, the close of high school soccer in the District of Columbia seems to be heralded by several seasonal rituals: falling leaves, colder temperatures and Wilson versus Bell in the DCIAA title game.
 
Year after year, the two schools find themselves facing off for the D.C. Public Schools championship and the tradition renewed itself over the weekend as the Tigers and Griffins clashed in a tightly-fought showdown for city bragging rights on the FieldTurf at McKinley Technical High School. Wilson won the last two final meetings to earn back-to-back DCIAA crowns, but Bell broke that streak with a controversial second-half penalty kick on Saturday afternoon to secure a tense 1-0 victory.

“When we play Wilson -- we’re big rivals -- so with them special energy comes to us,” said Griffins goalkeeper Elmer Aguilar afterwards. “It’s like the Redskins and the Cowboys. You never know what to expect.”

Aguilar kept his team level with a string of quality saves in the match’s first half-hour, and midfielder Gustavo Guevara buried the decisive spot kick after Wilson goalkeeper Stuart Maeder brought down Dagoberto Rodriguez in the penalty box.

Referee Ebenezer Botchway also produced a straight red card for Maeder on the play, sentencing the Tigers to finish the match shorthanded -- though the defending champs rallied impressively and saw Travis Reuther’s late equalizer waved off for offsides by referee Terry Grimes, two of many decisions that did not sit well with the Wilson contingent.

“I thought it was horrible. I didn’t even see him get his leg,” said Tigers head coach Kenny Owens of the penalty call. He and his staff were also frustrated by what they saw as the officials’ lenient approach to some physical play by Bell, though he refused to transfer blame for his team’s defeat.

“But we can’t control that and we still have to play, still try to win the game no matter what happens with the referees or the fouls that they call. We still have to play through that....That’s what happens in soccer. We weren’t able to capitalize on it -- we lost to a good team.”

Wilson controlled play at the outset, testing Aguilar early and often through efforts by Amtoun Almahdi and captain Elvin Jackson, who also saw a shot clang off the goalpost as the Tigers pressed hard for an early advantage. Wilson carved out superior possession with Almahdi, Reuther and Ben Mingo patrolling the center of the park effectively, yet Bell threatened several times on the counterattack as Cameroon-born striker Cedric Djikegoue probed gaps in the Tigers back line.

Rodriguez should have put his side in front just before halftime when he beat the Tigers offsides trap and ran down a smart through ball from Djikegoue to dribble in on Maeder. Rodriguez juked past the netminder but was denied a simple finish by his quick recovery, as Maeder threw himself back and to his left to glove the ball, preserving the deadlock with an excellent piece of goalkeeping.

The match would turn on a nearly identical sequence in the second half. Djikegoue fed Rodriguez with another sharp diagonal ball as the winger raced into space down the left side, drawing Maeder off his line.

When Rodriguez swiveled around him, the Wilson netminder dived in at his feet, sending his opponent sprawling to the turf and prompting Botchway to point to the spot before ejecting the shocked Maeder, who had to trudge off the field as backup Mario Diaz-Aviles came on to face the spot kick. Guevara drilled his shot inside the left post and sprinted over to taunt the Wilson supporters while Bell’s fans celebrated wildly.

Wilson rallied gamely and Reuther seemed to have drawn his team level with a close-range header into the net after Mingo’s hard work broke down the Bell defense. But Grimes waved off the goal for offsides, drawing bitter jeers from the Tigers faithful. Wilson’s continued pressure made for a nervous finish and Bell greeted the final whistle with joy and relief as their motley squad savored a hard-earned championship.

With a host of different nationalities represented on their roster, many key players holding after-school jobs and no home field of their own until this year, the Griffins have overcome a range of obstacles to reach this point and longtime head coach Victor Molina’s leadership drew praise from all quarters, including Owens, his Wilson counterpart.


“We’ve got Ethiopian -- me myself, I’m from Cameroon -- we’ve got Salvadorans, Mexicans,” explained Djikegoue. “So the team is really, really diverse and every single one of us knows soccer, and we have a coach up here who just kind of combined that together and we play as a team on the field.”

For his part, Molina also praised his players for their unity and dedication.

“It’s been hard for us. The diversity we have, a lot of the kids have to go to work and [with] interruptions that we have to have, it’s hard for me to keep the full team at all times and run sessions with them,” he said.

“But they sacrifice, they come -- sometimes on the weekend. We do what we can, so it just shows the hard work we put in with the team and the sacrifices the kids have to make. For us, it’s very special...It’s been a journey for us. It’s been a good ride.”

--

About the Author: Charles Boehm has covered D.C. United for and the rest of the Washington-area soccer world for more than four years. A frequent contributor to MLSNet.com, this native Dallas, Texan made D.C. his home following a hard-working -- but hardly spectacular -- NCAA Division III college career and subsequent Peace Corps stint in the small, soccer-crazed, island nation of Grenada, where he also coached and played in the Grenadian Premier League (such as it is). He welcomes feedback at cboehm@potomacsoccerwire.com.