BRANDON — Behind a stellar offensive attack, the Long Beach High School boys soccer team raced past New Hope 4-1 to claim the MHSAA Class 5A State Championship on Saturday night at Bulldog Stadium.
It’s the Bearcats (17-2-1) second consecutive Class 5A state title and second title in school history.
“The kids have worked real hard and to get here five years in a row is extremely difficult, and going through getting back to back is huge,” Long Beach coach Andee Wilburn said. “Every year is a new team and new kids, so they have a mind set to get it done, and I’m proud of them for that.”
New Hope scored first on a penalty kick by Robert Parnell seven minutes into the game to give the Trojans an early lead. Long Beach tied the game with 22 minutes left in the first half as Ethan Myers scored on a free kick.
“We went up early and give Long Beach credit,” Trojans coach Andrew Olsen said. “They came back and got us.”
The Bearcats took the lead at 2-1 four minutes later as Landon Vancourt scored off a deflection.
Vancourt assisted on the next goal for Long Beach, as his cross to Ethan Laborde led to a goal that gave the Bearcats a 3-1 lead.
Dylan Kippes scored the final goal of the game off a pass from William Long to give the Bearcats the 4-1 lead in the 65th minute.
“We’re very balanced and got 10 guys that can score at any point, and that’s been a big advantage for us,” Wilburn said. “We’re going to get back to work and do what we got to do to get back here.”
Kippes was named the game’s most valuable player.
“I just wanted to play for the seniors cause they’ve played for state all four years, and I enjoy seeing the smiles on their faces,” Kippes said. “We’ve got to go back and work even harder to get back here next year. I’ll be a senior next year along with a bunch of others on this team, so we will be back.”
New Hope finished the season 18-4, reaching the 5A title game for the first time.
“We had a goal to get here since our season ended last year, and now that we got here we’ve got make it the standard of getting back here every year,” Olsen said.
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