The last two seasons the Shady Spring boys soccer team has knocked on the door at the Class AA Region 3, Section 1 championship game, only to come home empty-handed.
Saturday night at H.B. Thomas Field the Tigers kicked the door down.
Sparked by goals from brothers Nathan Vecellio and Michael Vecellio, along with a strong defensive effort, Shady Spring beat PikeView for the 2023 sectional championship.
The win gives Shady its first sectional title since 2011.
“We have put in a lot of work, for a long time, to get to this point and it feels great,” Shady Spring head coach Josiah Smith said. “I am so proud of these boys. They could have given up several moments in this game and they showed a lot of heart to finish it out.”
The season ending heartbreak the last two years for the Tigers had come at the hands of the Panthers who provided a strong challenge Saturday.
“If you don’t match the intensity levels of your opponents, you are going to have issues. That was my message to the boys. PikeView is a physical team and we have to match that and meet them there at a minimum,” Smith said. “My boys are not afraid to be physical, but they also want to find feet and move the ball.”
The two previous losses also provided inspiration for the underclassmen who did not want to see the senior class leave without a title to their credit.
“Everybody knew we had to win it this year. We did it for our seniors,” junior Nathan Vecellio said. “We motivated ourselves to win it this year for our seniors.”
The younger Vecellio staked Shady Spring to the 1-0 lead as the match approached the midpoint of the opening half.
“They over-committed on that,” Nathan Vecellio said. “I took a touch wide, beat the defender and then just finished away from the keeper up top.”
While none of the attempts found their mark prior to Nathan Vecellio’s goal, the action was furious prior to the first ball to find the back of the net.
Before the two minute mark, the Tigers had two quality shots on goal and PikeView had missed on a free kick just across the crossbar.
An athletic, sliding save from Shady’s freshman keeper Jack Billeter in the ninth minute kept the match scoreless.
The complexion of the sectional clash changed quickly in the third minute of the second half, however, when a Shady Spring defender was called for a foul inside the penalty box.
Michael O’Sullivan was true on the penalty kick to tie the match.
The game stayed even for the next 13 minutes before PikeView returned the favor to the home team with a foul in the box as well.
Senior Michael Vecellio took the penalty kick for the Tigers, but his blast was rejected by PikeView keeper Drew Damewood’s diving stop. Unfortunately for the Panthers, when the ball spilled out, Vecellio was the first player there to collect the rebound.
Vecellio did not miss on the second try.
“The keeper made a really good save and I was just there for the rebound,” Michael Vecellio said. “Nobody from his team ran to the ball. I don’t know if they assumed I was going to make it, but I didn’t and I was there for the rebound. I didn’t give up after he saved it.”
As could be expected, Michael Vecellio was thrilled to finally lift that plaque that read “sectional champions.”
“I have been here since my sophomore year and some of the other seniors have been here since freshman (year),” Michael Vecellio said. “I transferred here from North Carolina. After losing two years in a row, winning it feels so good.”
The Vecellio and Vecellio strike team has been an unstoppable dynamic all season for Smith’s squad.
“Those guys play the ball to each other so well and so instinctively,” Smith said about the brother tandem. “It’s really not just with each other. They set their teammates up and they are aggressive at the right moments. They are leaders on our team, especially Michael, but Nathan has really come on more and more throughout the season. He is dominant and so good.”
The match did have some controversy in the waning seconds when PikeView striker Matt Murphy went down on an attack inside the box.
PikeView fans, players and coaches called for a foul, but no call was made by the official and the game ended 2-1.
“I thought he got mugged in the box. It was pretty clear that it was from behind and he went forward,” PikeView head coach Jimmy Patton said. “We had a couple before that where the fans were yelling and the players were yelling for a call, but I didn’t think the other two late in the game were fouls.”
Patton had nothing but praise for Shady Spring after the match.
“I think they are really good and a really disciplined team,” Patton said about the Tigers. “They hold their formation well and they don’t get panicked. They play small passes and good passes. They are tough to defend and they have a really good attack.”
Shady Spring advances to the regional round which will be played Tuesday against Charleston Catholic. Game time is approximately 7:30 p.m in Charleston, following the girls regional game that kicks at 5 p.m.
