FENTON – The Van Horn soccer team has several players who can put the ball in the net, but before the Falcons could become a championship team, those potent scorers had to learn to share the glory.
“It was difficult because they all wanted to be the guy scoring. There would be a guy wide open and they wouldn’t pass it,” Van Horn coach Jesús Rodriguez said.
During a Friday film study after an early-season loss, Rodriguez decided to show a different kind of film – a documentary about the 2002 Brazilian soccer team.
“Those guys are three billion dollars on the field and they love playing together. All of them can take over a game, but they choose to play together, to celebrate with each other,” Rodriguez said.
From then on, the Van Horn soccer team adopted the motto, ‘Joga Bonito,’ which in Portuguese means, ‘Play Beautifully.’
“That became our theme. I would create drills where they had to make seven passes and then finish. All of that took a while, but when it clicked, we didn’t lose again,” Rodriguez said.
Surviving a first half red card, the shorthanded Falcons scored four beautiful goals and defeated Fort Zumwalt East 4-2 to capture the Class 3 Missouri State High School Activities Association championship Saturday at Soccer Park in Fenton.
Van Horn (25-1), which received a pair of goals from senior Jan Carlo Peña, won its first state championship in program history in its first title game appearance.
“I told them before the game, ‘The worst thing that can happen today is that you’ll go down as the best Van Horn team in school history,’” Rodriguez said.
Last season, Van Horn lost their semifinal matchup in penalty kicks to eventual state champion Ladue. The Falcons left the weekend with a fourth-place finish and without scoring a goal.
“It was a bitter taste, but we had the youngest roster in that final four. This year, coming here with a team of upperclassmen, we thought if we could stay focused and score some goals, we could win it,” Rodriguez said.
Neither the focus nor the goals were evident at the start. Playing with the beauty of a train derailment, Van Horn committed six early fouls and received three yellow cards, including two by senior Miabo Asukulu – disqualifying him from the game in the 29th minute.
Van Horn, which also played a man down in its district championship victory, needed to adjust their physicality, their formation and their focus.
“It was definitely scary, but it was also motivating,” senior captain Adrian Flores said. “We believe that, just because we’re down a man, doesn’t mean we can’t play better than the other team.”
And they did.
Trusting the three-person back line of Andrew Barron, Mikey Sagastume and Cesar Ramos Lopez, the Falcons kept their original formation and employed a floating forward to maintain offensive pressure.
“I had to calm them down a little bit. It was like a punch in the gut, ‘Here we go again,’ but we’re a different team this year,” Rodriguez said. “Once they went a man down, they knew they had to figure it out. They had to adjust and adapt.”
That adjustment was made easier when Van Horn senior Emilio Hernandez knocked in a rebound off a Flores’ indirect kick just 1 minute 42 seconds after the red card was administered.
“I think the goal they got as soon as they went down a man kept the game from tilting a bit more,” Fort Zumwalt East coach Nolan Wesche said.
Just before halftime, Van Horn struck again when senior Abdulahl Islow received a gorgeous through-ball from Dael Umanzor and punished a right-footed blast into the far corner of the net to give the Falcons a two-goal lead.
At intermission, the Falcons’ were flying high, but Flores noticed a despondent Asukulu.
“We knew he was (feeling) down, and we were telling him, ‘There’s no need to be sad. You have to be the loudest one on the bench now.’ We wanted to win it for him because he has passion for this team,” Flores said.
Rodriguez knew with 10 players, two goals would not be enough, so he continued employing just three defenders along the back line in hopes of finding a third goal.
“We knew they were going to come at us. We had to keep scoring,” Rodriguez said.
Van Horn committed a handball violation in the box less than five minutes into the second half and Fort Zumwalt East senior Jacob Phillips converted the penalty kick it to cut the deficit to 2-1.
During the state semifinal, Van Horn yielded the first goal to Summit Christian before rallying for a 3-1 victory. On Saturday, the goal by Fort Zumwalt East produced the same response in the Falcons.
“We turned it on,” Flores said.
Less than two minutes after the Lions’ goal, Van Horn senior Jan Carlo Peña pounced on a rebound and scored to make it 3-1. A pretty delivery from Umanzor set up Peña for, what Wesche referred to as a “wonder strike” for his second goal in a 2 minute 58 second span, and the Falcons took a commanding 4-1 lead.
“Hats off to them. They’re a great technical team. They earned it today,” Wesche said.
Fort Zumwalt East (18-6-1), making its first state championship game appearance in program history, did not go away quietly. With 15 minutes remaining, Phillips found Aiden Kelly, who buried a shot into the upper left corner of the net to close the deficit to 4-2 and send the Lions’ massive student section into a frenzy.
“I’m thankful for the ride that these guys were able to take the school and the whole community on. That shared experience was the awesome part of this,” Wesche said.
And the Lions kept turning up the pressure, threatening the Van Horn goal with nine shot attempts in the second half.
“I believed we would find another goal and make it tight because this group has shown the heart and desire to fight all year,” Wesche said.
But the willingness of Van Horn to share both the ball and the glory carried the Falcons to the finish line.
“We had a vision for ourselves to win it all,” Flores said. “We knew we weren’t going to be as fast, as tall, as strong as other teams, but we were going put in the work and learn how to play together.”
Rodriguez added, “Everything that happened we had an answer for. They stayed calm, they adjusted and they never doubted themselves.”
For a photo gallery from this game click on this link: https://benvessa.smugmug.com/Boys-Soccer/Boys-Soccer-2025/Van-Horn-vs-FZE-Class-3-championship-11-22-25
