Two years ago, veteran Maclay boys soccer coach Andy Warner was wrapping up a talk at his team’s postseason banquet in which he spelled out the importance of senior keeper Taylor Smith’s roll taking the Marauders to consecutive championship games.
Warner asked someone – anyone – else to step up when Smith left.
Afterwards, Hudson Williams, a sophomore field player called up for the postseason, went to Warner and said he’d be that guy. Similarly, Alex Guzman last year began filling the role of center back, also needed with the departure of a key central figure.
Tuesday night against Florida High, seniors Williams and Guzman anchored a 3-1 win over the Seminoles to help Maclay. The Marauders, who are ranked No. 5 in the state and No. 12 nationally, improved to 9-0 on the year.
“Everyone was looking at me to do it, and that’s what the team needed, so I just made the transition,” said Williams.
“Having Hudson back there with me has helped solidify our defense,” Guzman said. “We did have an unfortunate goal in the last minute, and we take responsibility for that, but we’ll go back to training and improve.”
While the shutout went out the window in the last minute on Delali Simpson’s goal for Florida High (4-7-1), Williams and Guzman also contributed offense.
Both had assists during the run of play – the keeper punting a ball forward on a counter attack after a set piece, finding freshman RJ Hosay, for his second goal; and the center back turning possession on a set piece into a left-footed goal by Mateus Bitencourt.
“I just left it up to the guys up top to get it done,” said Williams, who only had to face a couple shots in net.
“I tried to score myself and just took a bad touch, so it was very lucky,” Guzman said.
Hosay, who scored once against Florida High earlier in the year, picked up two goals to take his season total to eight, tying Bitencourt for the team lead.
He scored the opening goal in the 13th minute, putting in a rebound just in front of net after Cade Smith’s free kick from just outside the right box was saved but not corralled by Seminoles freshman keeper Francisco Armijo.
“We were a little rusty coming off break,” Hosay said. “We had a lot of chances, but we just couldn’t finish. We need to communicate better and work better together as a team. For me, I started the year on the bench, but I guess I’ve just worked really hard to get on the field and help my team out.”
Until a late through ball found Simpson in space to finish a 1-v-1, Florida High had little to celebrate aside from Armijo’s outstanding play to keep the Seminoles close. He finished with 10 saves, including seven in the first half.
“The most improvement we need to make is cleaning up errors and give up goals off mistakes – rebound chances and things like that,” Florida High coach Manuel Rico said. “It has to mean something on the defensive end, set pieces and corners to stay with the runners. Once we do that, I like our chances.”
Florida High has six games left in the regular season before district tournament play.
Maclay has seven games remaining, all winnable given its pedigree, though Miami Columbus (8-2-2) and a season-ending game against Lincoln (8-1-2) will be the big tests to see if it can go unbeaten.
“This is as balanced and as technically gifted a team as I’ve had in about 15 years,” Warner said. “The technical know-how and finishing part is very good. But it’s all about preparation for the playoffs.
“In my career at Maclay, I’ve gone unbeaten in the regular season twice and I don’t look back on those years favorably because we got beat early in the playoffs. That’s why rankings aren’t our focus. It’s about performance.”
Contact Brian Miller at bmiller@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @bigbendpreps.
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2020-01-08 04:02:00Z
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/sports/preps/2020/01/07/hosays-two-goals-carries-national-no-12-maclay-soccer-9-0-start/2818368001/
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