Shaban's Goal Notches Title for Stone Bridge

By Paul Tenorio

Saturday, May 31, 2008

As his teammates celebrated around him, Stone Bridge senior Ronnie Shaban reflected on his team's 1-0 win over No. 3 Robinson last night in the Virginia AAA Northern Region boys' soccer championship. It wasn't pretty by soccer standards, but to Shaban, that wasn't important.

"I don't care however bad we played or whatever," said Shaban, who scored the lone goal just 2 1/2 minutes into the game. "Just winning it is what matters."

Photo: Toni L. Sandys

Stone Bridge does a victory march after beating Robinson, 1-0. "I don't care however bad we played or whatever," Stone Bridge's Ronnie Shaban said. "Just winning it is what matters."

The game barely had started when Shaban took a throw-in from senior Chris Kamara at the top of the 18-yard box on the left side and volleyed a right-footed shot that sneaked in under the crossbar to give top-ranked Stone Bridge the lead. But following the goal, Robinson dominated the majority of the game and Stone Bridge (18-1-1) fought to hold on to the narrow margin.

"The game dictated that we ended up having to sit back," Stone Bridge Coach Randy May said. "A tremendous amount of space to cover, [but] at the end of the day I don't care. We got one more than the other guy."

By the second half, as Robinson (10-4-3) continued to push forward, Stone Bridge found itself dropping deeper and deeper into a defensive formation.

"We had to finish those opportunities and that's what we didn't do tonight," Robinson Coach Jac Cicala said. "I told the boys they played a good game of soccer, at the end of the game we had to push the envelope for sure. But it came down to being a little bit sharper in the final 15 minutes of the game on their end of the field and that's where we slipped a little bit."

Stone Bridge will host Kecoughtan, which lost to Cox, 4-1, in a state quarterfinal Tuesday, and Robinson will travel to face the Cox.

Tagged: soccer, Stone Bridge High School

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