Tritons, ‘Hawks battle to tie
Jersey color clearly is no issue for Alex Collazo.
The senior goalkeeper was stopping shots for Cape Coral last season, but a subsequent transfer to crosstown rival Mariner clearly has not impacted his effectiveness as the last line of on-field defense.
He proved that Tuesday night when the Tritons hosted the Seahawks on a frigid night at Tony McKenna Field, diving to his left to spectacularly swat down a free kick with 15 minutes remaining to preserve a 1-1 tie between the still unbeaten city soccer rivals in a District 3A-13 game.
“I knew the shooter (Cape High’s Camilo Avendano) was a right-footer, so I knew he might swing it inside (the right post). I kept that in my mind, and he did,” Collazo said. “I wait until the ball’s hit, and once I saw it disappear behind the wall I knew he was going for my near post.”
The sequence began when Seahawks sophomore midfielder Andre Blanco gained possession deep in Mariner territory, ultimately forcing a foul about five yards outside the Tritons’ penalty area. Avendano, a junior midfielder, lined up and ripped a shot that made a beeline toward the right side of the cage, forcing Collazo to elongate his compact 5-foot-8 frame to block the ball with no rebound.
“I try to go into every shot very confident that I’m going to save it,” he said. “So I felt pretty good even before he took the kick that I wasn’t going to let it go in.”
The timely stop helped Collazo erase the frustration of the game’s opening shot some 60 minutes earlier, which resulted in Gianni Cognata’s goal putting Cape High up 1-0 at 5:14 of the first half.
The Seahawks took possession just inside midfield and worked the ball down the left side when Blanco’s pass to a charging Cognata just inside the penalty area resulted in a rolling shot that eluded Collazo to the cage’s open right side.
“It was a fast goal,” said Cognata, a fleet-footed junior. “I got the ball and I went right to the far post.”
The advantage lasted less than 90 seconds, because the tally was quickly answered by an equalizer by Mariner sophomore forward Joey Lane, whose chip from the left side curled between Seahawks goalkeeper Kyal Webber and the crossbar at 6:28.
The goal is Lane’s fifth of the season and the 27th time the Tritons have scored while building a 7-0-2 record through nine games. The Seahawks are now 4-0-1 and have won two head-to-head meetings and tied one since last losing to Mariner in the District 3A-11 championship game in January 2013.
“After the first goal I was a little let down, but after we scored it gave me some more confidence to not allow any more,” Collazo said. “It was hard playing against my old teammates. It was a little different, but last year when I played for Cape, all my friends from my competitive team played for Mariner. It was almost the same thing here, but the other way around.”
The Seahawks visit Bishop Verot Wednesday with Mariner hosting Cypress Lake that same night.