By DAVID ERSOFF, Journal Sports
HAMMOND — Three months ago, when the Bossier boys’ soccer team visited The Willow School with virtually nothing at stake, nobody foresaw the lasting value of a contest finishing in a 0-0 stalemate.
Safe to say both coaches — former rivals at Bossier and Parkway as players — and their teams have rewatched that match plenty of times this week. The squads collide again today at 4:30, with a state championship at stake.
The LHSAA Division III title game in Strawberry Stadium on the Southeastern Louisiana campus pairs the second-seeded Bossier Bearkats (23-2-2) and fourth-seeded The Willow School Lions (16-4-5). The game will be live-streamed on NFHSnetwork.com (pay per view, or subscription).
These teams faced each other on Nov. 19 in New Orleans. They also have had one common opponent this year in Division II’s top-seeded team, Ben Franklin, who also will be playing for a state title today. Bossier tied Ben Franklin 2-2, while The Willow School lost 2-1, which might imply a slight advantage for Bossier going into today’s titanic match.
The Bearkats are in the state finals for the first time in school history, surpassing last year’s run to the semifinals, where they lost 2-0 to Vandebilt. This year’s playoffs have seen Bossier victories over No. 31 Livingston Collegiate 7-1, No. 15 Tara 3-0, No. 10 Belaire 5-1 and a semifinal thriller over third-seeded St. Louis 1-0.
The playoff run by The Willow School (formerly Lusher Charter) includes victories over No. 29 Livonia 8-0, No. 20 Morgan City 2-1, No. 5 E.D. White 3-0, and the Lions’ own semifinal thriller over top-seeded University Lab, that went through regulation, both overtime sets and was decided on penalty kicks 4-2.
Adding to the intrigue of this championship collision is the fact that the coaches, Bossier’s Orlando Medellin and The Willow School’s Ben Barcelona, faced off as high school players.
Medellin lined up for Bossier and Barcelona played for Parkway back in 2007 and 2008. Medellin was a keeper who helped the Bearkats to become a playoff team. Barcelona was a midfielder who until last year held the goals record for Parkway at 99 goals, surpassed by Max Holt in 2022.
Parkway and Barcelona were dominant over the Bearkats, going 4-0 over the two years with a 21-4 goal advantage.
Recalling Medellin in those days, Barcelona said, “I remember that Orlando was a strong competitor, and a real leader on his team.”
Medellin was glad to see Barcelona get his Panther diploma. “Parkway had an amazing team back then,” he said. “We didn’t beat them until my senior year, after Ben graduated.”
While the coaches’ influence will be a significant factor today, it comes down to the boys on the field.
The Bearkats have scored 102 times, while only conceding 14 goals (four coming in the first two games of the year). Fourteen different players have scored at least once, including four with double-digit goals. Felix Deras leads the team with 26, followed by Yoani Reyes (16), David Rojas (13) and Rony Carcamo (11).
As important as goals are, assists show overall teamwork, and the Bearkats impress in that statistic. Bossier has had 83 total assists for those 102 goals, over 81 percent of goals setup by a teammate. There are 13 Bearkats with at least one assist, five of those with at least 10: Rojas with 15, Reyes (14), Carcamo (12), and Deras and Alexis Serrano with 11 each.
Bossier’s sophomore keeper, Logan Bamberg, has 16 shutouts, while only conceding 14 goals. His goal against average is 0.52 goals per game. This stands up well to the 3.78 goals per game Bossier scores.
The Lions have scored 73 goals this season, led by Tenchi Otten-Rashad with 15 goals, and they average 2.92 goals scored. They have 43 assists, led by Amos Liles with 8, to go with those goals. The Lions conceded only 16 total goals, for an 0.64 goals against average. Sophomore keeper Booker Henry has 16 shutouts.
It shapes up as another tight battle, three months later, this time with the never-ending glory of a state crown on the line.
Contact David at dersoff@bellsouth.net