‘Welcome to the 11th Region.’ Two of state’s top teams deliver season-opening thriller.
The day after Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 11th Region boys’ soccer championship victory over Frederick Douglass last season, Broncos’ Coach Omar Shalash called Bulldogs Coach James Wray to schedule a rematch on this season’s calendar.
On Tuesday evening, the Bulldogs hosted Douglass in the schools’ heated rivalry. The 2023 season opener for both teams resulted in a 3-3 tie.
“It was a big fight,” Douglass leading scorer Cooper Ranvier said. “It’s always Dunbar and us, and it’s always gonna be Dunbar and us. And it was a bad way to end last year, but we came out with some fire with us. And we just kept getting down, but we never backed down. We’ll see them again in the region championship.”
The two Lexington powers will not collide again this regular season so, for now, it’s a standoff.
Douglass graduated a whopping 19 seniors from last season’s 42nd District champion team, but still looks every bit a contender to make Ranvier’s prediction possible.
With six starters returning, Dunbar again poses as much a threat as anybody in Kentucky. The Bulldogs have collected three straight 11th Region titles — each of those eliminating Douglass on penalty kicks along the way — and back-to-back state championships.
On Tuesday, it was Dunbar that scored first with a goal from star senior Gio Chavez 11 minutes into the first half.
“I think it just prepares us for the next opponent,” Chavez said of Monday’s season-opening test. “It humbles us, just lets us know that we can’t just expect to win every game, we have to earn it. And I just think it’s preparing us for the rest of the season.”
The first half saw four goals, two for each team, with both sides trading possession at a rapid clip. Not long after Chavez broke the seal, Luke Wiles snuck one in for Douglass. Ryan O’Hara then put the Bulldogs back on top at 16:25 in the first half before Ranvier evened the score again five minutes later.
“They adapted, we changed our formation 15 minutes in,” Shalash said. “And we basically gave up the midfield and said we’re gonna go with more attackers. They had opportunities. But the most important thing for these guys, a lot of them, this is brand new to them. When you play a team as good as Dunbar, with the coaches that they have, you have to be on your game, we came out, and we had opportunities to jump on them. But instead, the immaturity, the lack of experience for some of our guys that are in main positions, they’re just not ready for it. We were fortunate every goal they scored, we answered, and that’s what we are, you know, we never feel sorry for ourselves.“
Following halftime, both teams returned to the field prepared to grind out a win. Dunbar’s Chaz Rich scored with 25 minutes left in the match, and Douglass’s Ammar Alsiraj found the net with 19:49 to play. Neither team could manage another goal.
“Welcome to the 11th Region,” Wray said. “It’s a battle most games. They’re a really solid team. I thought we mentally switched off a couple of times which led to some goals, but for the most part I thought the effort was there. Still trying to figure out some things in the back with our defense. But it was a tough, physical game, and they’re gonna be a force in the 11th Region. It wasn’t a loss, it wasn’t a win. I think the guys saw some positives. But I told them, let’s look at the negatives too, and see where we can get better, because we’re only going to grow from this and get better.”
