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Sazon FC felt controlling the ball could bring it the title at the 2025 LaCopa Tournament.
So, Jaciel Lagos came up with a plan for the sophomore-only team.
“The main focus on putting this team together was making it a full team of only sophomores and choosing players who would help out as much as possible,” Lagos said.
“Also choosing mainly midfielders was another idea so our control on the ball could be very good. Luckily for the sophomore grade, most players were either attacking midfielder or defensive mids.”
Everything worked to perfection as Sazon FC emerged as champion in the event, which was held on Tuesday, March 4. Sazon FC prevailed in convincing fashion, shutting out the Goons 4-0 in the final behind a pair of goals by Lagos.
In the semifinals, Sazon FC scored twice in the last 1:26 to win, 4-1. The Goons edged Cold FC 3-2 in overtime. The squads that competed for the title were runners-up in their respective pools.
Goalie Pavel Armas had an exceptional showing in the final, stopping five shots before Adam Fidurski broke though with 4:59 remaining. Anastasia Showler, a standout for the girls team, connected off a lefty shot 1:15 later for 2-0. Lagos found the back of the net at 2:58 and 55.8 seconds to cap the dominant offensive effort.
“The best qualities of my team are the chemistry and skills we bring to the table,” Lagos said. “We are all close friends and have played with each other so we all are connected as a team. Most of us are part of clubs as well so I’d like to say the skills we brought to the tournament were a pretty big quality of our team.”
Confidence, too, played a role for Sazon FC, which made it to the semis as freshmen.
“The approach was, of course, to win the whole thing and be able to compete well,” Lagos said. “We made the semis last year as freshmen so, for this year, we were all confident we were going to make it to the semis and then to the final. Our confidence is one of the big factors that helped us win.”
Showler, who has 52 goals for the BHS varsity girls team in two seasons, was a valuable member of Sazon FC.
“Anastasia is a very skilled and experienced player and really was able to help the team out,” said Lagos.
Lagos, Fidurski and Showler were joined on Sazon FC by Sanjay Patel, Brett Giordano, Alex Garrido, Santino Adornetto and Tyler DaSilva.