Ponte Vedra boys rally past Stanton, make soccer regional finals

The best team in Ponte Vedra boys soccer history has some company.

Casey Macias converted a chance with 6:55 left to play to lift the Sharks to a frustrating, yet elating 2-1 win over Stanton Friday in the Class 3A regional semifinals.

Ponte Vedra is headed back to the regional finals for the second straight season and will head to Choctawhatchee for a rematch of last year's matchup.

"I'm just happy to be back in the regional finals," Ponte Vedra coach Daniel Villarreal said. "I'm just glad to have this opportunity again."

If Villarreal sounded relieved, it's probably safe to say he was.

The Blue Devils (18-7-3) were coming off a stunning 3-2 win over district champion Nease in the quarterfinals and came remarkably close to handing the Sharks (13-6-1) an identical fate. Ponte Vedra trailed for nearly the entire game, needing two goals in the final 16 minutes to stave off another St. Johns County upset.

Despite being heavily outshot, and outplayed overall, Stanton grabbed a 1-0 lead with just over 35 minutes remaining in the first half. Junior forward Ben Gross slid in a goal into the right corner off the Blue Devils' only corner kick of the half.

Ponte Vedra threw in seven shots in the opening 40 minutes, including many from inside the box, but came away with nothing.

Sound familiar?

In the second, the Sharks began to press at a frantic pace. It resembled the onslaught Nease threw at Stanton late in the second half of their game, only Ponte Vedra protected itself on the backline and didn't break down on defense.

And most of all, the Sharks caught a break.

The first goal came on a questionable penalty call inside the box with a little more than 16 minutes left to play. On a Ponte Vedra throw-in, a Stanton defender was called for a push in the back. Michael Della Porta stepped up and calmly netted the penalty just inside the left post.

"It ended up being favorable for us. It could have gone either way," Villarreal said. "I think it was a foul. He called it a foul. But we definitely got a little fortunate."

Before that, Ponte Vedra was visibly frustrated. Stanton's packed-in defense, and the play of freshman goalkeeper Tyler Gillespie, stonewalled chance after chance for the Sharks.

The two most glaring moments came on near misses by Grant Hwang and Dean Nixon.

Hwang took a bad touch on a long pass that left him with a clear shot at goal. Instead of chipping it in, he lofted it over the goal and out for a goal kick.

Nixon, who was active throughout the night, sailed a shot from inside the box over the crossbar and dropped his face into his hands.

At that point, it was starting to look like that type of night for Ponte Vedra.

The penalty shot, however, opened the game up for the Sharks. Macias scored off a perfectly placed throw-in by D'Alessandro.

The pass came flying in from the sideline like a corner, landing directly on the foot of Macias, who safely sent into the back of the net.

"We've been working so hard. We weren't going to let it go to waste tonight on our home field," Macias said. "But this was a team effort. It wasn't about me. We never gave up tonight. … You have to play the whole game. You never know what could happen."

What happened was something anyone in attendance could see. Although, given what happened to Nease, there was no reason to believe it would.

"I told them before the game that Stanton did something we couldn't do this season and that was beat Nease," Villarreal said. "They were a good, disciplined, tough team. This was a big win for us."