Argueta Hat Trick Leads Lely in Regionals

Playing without their star player—the school’s single-season scoring record holder, no less—the Lely soccer team played their best game, beating Cypress Lake 8-1 in a regional quarterfinal game, behind Stive Argueta’s hat trick—three goals—and two goals from Mauro Martinez. The Trojans nearly mercy-ruled the Panthers on a chilly Friday night, February 6, at Trojan Stadium. A mercy rule win comes when there is an eight-goal differential in the second half.

“This was the best game they played all season," said Robbie Schank, Lely coach. “We almost mercied them. Almost. You could tell that we had almost two weeks off. We really got to work on our chemistry. We got to slow it down. Guys got to get healed. They weren't as banged up. We got to go full field scrimmages and different team play this week. And it really paid off. Stive's the alpha male. He took over. The poor kid's been so sick all week—and he's still sick—and he still came out here and got the hat trick. Mauro came off the bench for this game and got two goals for us. He’s just a sophomore. He was exceptional for us."

Ty Collins, who recently set the single-season scoring record at Lely, did not play Friday.

"Right now, Ty has been disciplined by the school and we're day to day,” Schank said. "The guys stepped up for Ty being absent tonight, I can tell you that. I was really proud."

Lely scored early and often. Their first goal came almost immediately when Martinez scored with less than a minute into the game.

"I think we may have broken a school record,” Schank said, "the school record for the fastest goal ever. That was pretty impressive. When you can start off like that and just go full throttle, the blessings come. I haven't seen Cypress Lake since 2003, in the playoffs, when I won my first district championship here. It was kind of special seeing them again. A lot of memories were brought up playing against Cypress Lake today. We had a lot easier time today.”

Other Trojans who scored Friday were Anthony Villarreal, Daniel Otero, Angel Otero, and Eliseo Hernandez. Hernandez, who is also drum major for the Trojans’ marching band, scored the game’s final goal.

Schank is happy to have Connor Alexich back in goal. Alexich missed the entire regular season with a hand injury. He’s been in the lineup since the playoffs began. He had seven saves Friday.

“With Connor in there, any game is possible,” Schank said. "That kid, he didn't really get to show himself until just a little bit of a flurry there at the end of the game. Good luck scoring on Connor. That kid absolutely should be like the next superhero. Connor's going to be taking over the reins here in Collier County, southwest Florida, for the next couple of years. He's only a sophomore. It's a young team. We basically had two starting seniors out there. This team's not going anywhere for a long time."

Schank spent much of the second half imploring his players to continue playing at a high level with their big lead.

“When you're up 6-1,” he said, "you kind of lose that drive because you're on cruise control. And then, unfortunately, the other team feels that and they try to take advantage of it. There's a lot of seniors on that team, and you could tell that they didn't want this to be their last night because they played with all heart and pride over there for Cypress Lake."

Schank said he hopes future opponents may have been in the crowd for Friday’s game. If so, he’s sure they would have been impressed with his team’s performance.

“I hope some teams came here to scout us tonight,” he said with a knowing smile.

Lely (15-3-4) hosts Wachula Hardee (14-2-2) Thursday, February 12, at 7:00 PM in a regional semifinal. Lely is second seed in the region, Hardee is third.