Raiders Dominate Don Soffer Aventura with 2-0 Victory, Extend Winning Streak to Five Ahead of Regional Semifinals

Nicolas Sacerdote, Contributing Writer

February 13, 2025

Raiders celebrating the first goal scored by senior Cristian Murciano. This was the defender’s first of the season which put the Raiders towards the end of the first half.

This past Tuesday on Feb. 11, the Boys Varsity Soccer team defeated Don Soffer Aventura in an impressive 2-0 win.

The team is riding high momentum going into their regional semifinals with a 5 game-winning streak under their belt including this past game.

The game started off relatively slow with no teams having any tremendous scoring chances early on. However, this changed towards the end of the first half when senior defender Cristian Murciano headed in a goal from a beautifully delivered set piece from senior midfielder Nicolas Piñeros. This was the senior defender’s first goal of the season and a big one in that matter as it is what kickstarted the team’s victory. As the second half began the Raiders kept their momentum going when senior Jorge Gouvea doubled the team’s lead with another superb assist from captain Nicolas Piñeros marking his 21st of the season. This captain-to-captain connection has been vital for the team this season with the two being the team’s top goal-scoring and assisting duo. The rest of the game was more or less the same as the beginning, the only difference being that the Raiders had more opportunities to extend their lead multiple times with some close-range strikes being slightly off target.

As of late, the team’s performance has pleased many including junior defender Justin Merner.

Sophomore forward Youssef Elzomor takes on a Don Soffer defender. This winger’s impact could be felt throughout the match coming off the bench to help set up scoring positions in the final third.

“I think our team has really improved in the sense of being more adaptable whether it’s taking on different position roles or formations. We’ve all just collectively worked hard to get to where we are at and we want to carry that ethic throughout the remainder of the season,” Merner said.

Certain players have been able to step up and take on bigger roles towards the end of this season, one of them being sophomore forward Youssef Elzomor.

“We’ve really been able to work together better as a team in general and a lot of the results that you see are just accumulations of the work that’s being put in throughout the season so getting to see the benefits of it is truly satisfying,” Elzomor said.

This team’s special performances aren’t going unnoticed with long-time tenured coach Mor-Tatis speaking highly of them.

“This one of the best performances we’ve had so far this season and we want to continue bringing it for the rest of regionals and states but if there is one that I would focus on for our next encounter is our goal scoring and how we should have done better in getting more goal scoring opportunities,” Tatis said.