Gulf Shores’ Talan Galvan scored 2 goals to cap a fierce rally as the fifth-ranked Dolphins stormed from behind to secure a 3-2 overtime victory over No. 2 Guntersville in Friday’s Class 5A boys championship match at Huntsville’s John Hunt Park.
Gulf Shores (21-7-1) won its first boys soccer title in school history after falling to John Carroll in last year’s championship.
“We thought we had a good plan, really excited about it, and taking those two goals down was disappointing,” Gulf Shores coach Danny Norton said. “But we’ve been down before and we knew we had to keep fighting. We were in their half a lot early on but couldn’t finish. We had to be patient, knock the ball around and find our opportunities.”
The Dolphins came out firing, taking 2 shots in the first 2 minutes, but Guntersville was the first to find the back of the net.
Following a yellow card on Jordan Simon, Guntersville’s AJ Shumate scored on a penalty kick in the eighth minute to give the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead in the match. Shumate, a junior, scored a school-record 61 goals this season and has 162 goals in his career.
Brandon Manganaris added a second goal in the 39th minute, his first shot of the game, and scored off an assist from Will Davis as Guntersville held a 2-0 lead at the halftime break.
It did not take long for Gulf Shores to reassert itself, Noah Guthrie cutting the advantage to 2-1 off an assist from Bryan Nunez in the 53rd minute. The Dolphins had 10 shots on goal but only converted 3 with Guntersville goalkeeper Slaide Mohn notching 7 saves.
“I was on the bench but I saw it was a nasty volley,” Galvan said. “Noah put it away and that’s what put us back in the game.”
Galvan provided the equalizer in the 67th minute on a penalty kick following consecutive fouls called on the Wildcats.
“They were hyped up,” Norton said. “At that point, I had a feeling we were going to win this game. Once we got that first one back, it raised our fighting spirit. These guys have not given up all year and they deserve it. Talan is such an incredible player and we knew he would bury that (penalty kick) to equalize it.”
Neither team could break the stalemate in the waning moments of regulation, or the first overtime, and the match almost ended in penalty kicks until Galvan scored the game-winning goal heading into the final minute of the second overtime session.
“I saw the rings, baby, that’s all I saw,” he said. “We’re bringing home the Blue Map. I didn’t think we were going to PK’s and never had a doubt in my mind. I knew we were going to score and it was on me to bury it because it was a gimme.”
Guntersville (25-4-1) has four semifinal appearances in the program history and advanced to its first title match this season. The Wildcats fell to eventual 2023 champion John Carroll in last year’s semifinal match.
“I’m proud of the kids,” Guntersville coach Zack Ross said. “We made some adjustments at halftime that if you look back on it, maybe we shouldn’t have gone so defensive. We play in a tough area, probably five playoff quality teams in that area, and that helped us make it here. It just wasn’t meant to be for us this year. We had two seniors on the field so we have a lot of talented players coming back.”