Gateway Panthers Beat Harmony Longhorns, Advance to Title Game in OBC Soccer Tournament

Heading into this week’s Orange Belt Conference soccer tournament, Gateway coach Sagar Patel knew his team would most likely have to beat not one but two rivals if they were to win a championship.

After Monday’s convincing 8-0 win over Poinciana in the opening round, the second-seeded Panthers got by their first real test of the tournament by beating one of those nemesis — Harmony — by a 2-0 count on Wednesday night. The win sends Gateway (10-1-1) into Friday night’s championship game against top-seeded Celebration (9-2-1) and also ended an almost decade-long period of frustration against the Longhorns.

Although Gateway did beat Harmony, 2-0, earlier this season, the Panthers were a dismal 1-8-1 in their previous 10 matches against the Longhorns. “We knew tonight was going to be a struggle, Harmony is a really talented team that has had our number in recent years,” Patel said. “Tonight we got a great effort defensively and did enough offensively to win.”

Gateway would dominate possession, but thanks to a great defensive play by Harmony’s Aldo Ogando the game was scoreless after the first half. The Panthers best opportunity came in the 39th minute of the half when a corner kick bounced loose in front of the Harmony goal. But with the Harmony goalie out of position, the Panthers’ Nicolas Quintero’s unleashed a point blank shot that was blocked by the leg of a diving Ogando, who deflected the ball back to midfield.

The game would change dramatically early in the second half when Harmony’s Yekiel Hernandez-Plaza was sent off with a red card for a throwing an elbow. With the man advantage for the rest of the game, Gateway had several great opportunities to score but Longhorns goalie Miguel Zapata made several outstanding saves.