The Key West High seniors stand on the field with their parents at halftime on Friday, Jan. 20, at the KWHS Back Yard. The Conch seniors are Brody McCandless, Karel Bublak, Jack Castillo, Erick Orellana, Smondy Joseph, Jonathan Bahri, Jonathan Gvili, Daniel Quiche, Aaron Cassidy and Ervin Ordonez.
Just three days separated the matches during the home-and-away series for Monroe County rivals Key West and Coral Shores on the boys soccer pitch. The first contests finished in a 2-2 draw on the Hurricanes’ home turf in Tavernier on Jan. 17, while, with the regular season coming to an end thus the quick turnaround, the second result was much different as the Conchs, celebrating Senior Night, poured on the goals for a 6-1 victory at the KWHS Back Yard on Friday, Jan. 20.
The Key West High seniors stand on the field with their parents at halftime on Friday, Jan. 20, at the KWHS Back Yard. The Conch seniors are Brody McCandless, Karel Bublak, Jack Castillo, Erick Orellana, Smondy Joseph, Jonathan Bahri, Jonathan Gvili, Daniel Quiche, Aaron Cassidy and Ervin Ordonez.
All of the seniors who were suited up for Key West were on the pitch for opening kickoff, including Aaron Cassidy, who is still recovering from a knee injury but was able to start the game before stepping off, as well as backup goalkeeper Brody McCanless at forward.
It would take 15 minutes for the Conch seniors to settle in, but eventually, they would take control of the match as Jonathan Bahri netted a hat trick, Jonathan Gvili contributed a goal and two assists while Ervin Ordonez set up a two scores.
“[Bahri] played a top-level game,” said Bosque. “Our defense was never able to recover against him.”
The Jonathan connection started the scoring as Gvili sent a log ball for Bahri for the one-on-one with Hurricane keeper Kaiden Weinstock, and then two minutes later Gvili gained control of the ball at the top of the box before sending a shot that ricochet off far post for the 2-0 lead.
Bahri struck twice more before the half, the first on a corner kick from Ordonez and the second when Gvili sent a cross back post where Ordonez pushed it back to middle for his senior classmate to finish his hat trick for a 4-0 lead at the intermission.
In the second half, the future of the rivalry show up as Conchs freshman Loubins Fleuridor added a pair of scores while Hurricanes freshman Armando Picado took away the clean sheet with a score on a scissor kick.
With the victory, Key West closes out the regular season with a 10-3-2 mark, but the Conchs are still just the fourth-ranked team in the District 16-4A playoffs and will be heading to tournament host St. Brendan to play South Dade on Wednesday, Jan. 25, for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff in the single-elimination bracket. Coral Shores took the No. 3 slot in the District 16-3A after finishing the season 4-6 and will take on Somerset South Homestead on Wednesday, Jan. 25, at 7 p.m.
