Lely Beats Naples in District Championship

There was a Civil War battle fought on Staver Field Monday night, January 26.  But it wasn’t the North versus the South, it was Lely-Naples. And to the victors the spoils came in the form of the district soccer championship trophy. Like the more famous Civil War, this Collier County Civil War pitted brother versus brother. In this case it was Lely’s Ty Collins versus his brother, Naples goalie Dariece Collins, who he had never scored against. Well, Ty picked the right night to end his scoring drought against his brother, scoring three goals—a hat trick—against his younger brother, and leading the Trojans to a thrilling 3-2 win over their archrivals on their home field.

Collins nearly scored in the scoreless first half, but his brother stopped him.

"I told y'all that last week,” Ty Collins said after the game. "I scored three, and I know y'all heard the crowd after that first one when I missed it and he saved it. The whole crowd went crazy. They just didn't want me to score on him and I had to do it on him. I had to play to the last minute to score a goal.”

Collins scored the winning goal with just 20 seconds left in the game. On his first two goals he relied on pure speed. For the winning goal he mixed in some deception.

"I can't even explain it,” Ty said, shaking his head with a big smile on his face. "I can explain the third one. The third one, I hadn't put that move on all game. The first two were just straight speed and I did it. The third one I was using my speed, but I faked a shot. The kid slid across my face and I poked it in the back of the net. I didn't pull that off all game. They weren't expecting it."

So how does it feel to pull off a hat trick to win the district championship and score three times against your brother?

"It feels great,” Ty beamed. "It's the greatest moment in my lifetime right there.”

It was beginning to look like the game might be decided by penalty kicks as the teams battled back and forth in wintry conditions: winds gusting to 35 mph and feel-like temperatures in the 40s. The weather made long kicks and passing difficult.

"All the technical skills that I have and the experience I have, with all the skill both teams have,” said Robbie Schank, Lely coach, “it was just thrown out the window tonight. With 35 mile per hour gusts, there was nothing we could do technically. We just had to grit it out and grind it out and literally get the winning goal with 20 seconds left in the game."

Of course the coach knows who the star of the game was.

“Ty put on a show tonight,” the proud coach said. “Ty’s hit some major milestones this year with getting baptized and breaking the single-season school record over all the greats that I've coached. But tonight he finally got to beat the biggest nemesis of his career, his brother. He had never scored on Dariece in his high school career. And today he did it times three. That's crazy. God's blessing there. He's a great kid. He's going places."

The strong wind made passing nearly impossible. That’s where Collins’ ball skills came to the forefront. All three of his goals came on long breakaways where Collins shows the rare ability to move faster with the ball than his defenders can without it.

“When the ball is put in the air,” Schank said, "a gust comes through and it moves it 30-40 yards. But luckily, we were able to get the ball on the floor to Ty and he found the back of the net—no matter what the wind gusts were.”

Schank has a name for Collins’ breakaway goals.

"Those are called Ty Collins breakaways,” Schank said with his trademark smile filling his face. “Ty has a very simple thing. He just passes it into the net. He doesn't need to shoot it. He locks it and pops it in. That's what I call that. Ty locked and popped three times tonight."

The regional quarterfinals are up for Lely next week when they will host a lower-seeded opponent.

“That's a blessing,” Schank said. "We get to play at Trojan Stadium, where we dominate. We welcome any team to Trojan Stadium."

Of course, it was nice for Schank to win a district title on his archrival’s field.

"You know what?” Schank said. "I've had some major milestones here at Naples High. My first district championship of my career back in 2003 was won here, along with two regional semifinal championships. This is my home away from home."