Regional Semifinal - 2.12.26

When all the fog had finally cleared, the scoreboard showed 2 goals for Palm Harbor and 0 goals for Alonso.  What the scoreboard could not show, though, was the heart of a team that has pulled themselves up from the depths of a 5 win season just two years ago to hold the then #4 team in the nation scoreless for the first 40 minutes of play.  What the scoreboard could not show was that just three weeks prior to this game, Palm Harbor had beaten the Ravens 6-0 in an absolute bludgeoning.  Finally, what the scoreboard could not show was that for the first time since 2008, the Ravens made it all the way to a Regional Semifinal, winning two postseason games along the way.

Indeed, this has been a season to remember.  For the first time in our school's history, we defeated Sickles, Steinbrenner, Newsome and Plant all in the same season.  Those four schools are storied powerhouse programs (Newsome played PHU in the Regional Final on 2/17/26 and lost 7-6 in PKs (1-1 in regulation)).  Our goals coming into the season were to win double digit games and to win a postseason game.  Those goals were put in jeopardy after late season ties against Durant and Sumner left us with only 7 wins.  It took us beating Wharton in the Western Conference "13th game," defeating Plant at Plant in the District Semifinals and then defeating Venice to get to those 10 wins.  By doing that, we necessarily completed our second goal of winning at least one postseason game.  It turns out we won two!  That had not been done since that 2008 season.  Alonso had not even won a single postseason game since 2012.

This coaching staff started with most of these seniors four years ago and told them that we could be one of the top programs in the area if the kids would buy-in to the coaches' vision.  At the time, this seemed like an impossible thought.  The Ravens had come off of six consecutive losing seasons.  The boys put in effort, learned how to play in our system and bonded as teammates.  The results last year and this year tell the story:  back-to-back regional tournament selections.  As our seniors head off to do great things, we thank them for their incredibly leadership and plan to keep their tradition of excellence going for the forseeable future.