Zach Ubamadu, mere seconds after saving a penalty kick that essentially handed Baylor the DII-AA championship, donned a grey and purple t-shirt with the Nike-branded slogan “Dream Killer.” A year ago, Father Ryan’s purple-clad booters were the ones who slayed Baylor’s dreams of winning a title. In 2022, it was Ubamadu’s teammates who wrecked Father Ryan’s season.
“It feels good,” Umbamadu said.
“It was more about our dream, that we could make it happen. It was for the seniors and players last year that we couldn’t make it happen for.”
Father Ryan drew first blood on a Dylan Keiner shot, but the Red Raiders equalized a few minutes before halftime with an Anthony Weekly header off a corner kick. He looped in from the right side and careened toward the middle of the box, establishing himself as an inviting target. He quickly smashed the ball in, and Baylor went into halftime tied at one apiece.
“Our boys came up with the term ‘revenge tour’ because they came up short to Father Ryan just like this last year in the semifinals,” coach Curtis Blair said. “They continued through it to the whole thing. We gave ourselves an opportunity by making it to PKs.”
Around the 50th minute, Father Ryan took a 2-1 lead when Keiner again slotted one past Ubamadu, and for the second time in the game, Baylor’s hopes of a revenge tour were in peril. Baylor, led by talented attackers such as Phelipe Spielman and Gui Gragnano, maintained near-constant pressure on the defense for the next 30 minutes.
This pressure finally amounted to a Mohammed Wumpini strike with his golden right foot, one that tied the game at two-all and destined the game for extra time. Both teams were visibly exhausted, and no amount of exhortations from Ubamadu could give his team the energy needed to slug out a goal in the added 20 minutes.
“Zach lives for these moments,” coach Blair said. “He wants the pressure, and he wants the ball. We knew he’d save one, but we didn’t know we’d save two and I’d take it.”
And so it went to penalty kicks. Baylor and Father Ryan each traded made shots, and then Baylor made their second. That’s when the dream killer appeared in the form of a diving goalkeeper that smothered Father Ryan’s second penalty. A Baylor miss negated that, and then the two teams traded makes before Baylor made another one.
A second Ubamadu save changed everything. All Baylor had to do was make their next two kicks, and they would be crowned champions by winning 4-2. Phelipe Spielman easily converted his. Then Riley Shankle stepped up to the spot, briskly jogged toward the ball, and canned a cold-blooded kick that gave Baylor its first state championship since 2018.
“We kept telling them to keep working and fighting, because we knew we were having the better chances and better play, and we knew we’d come (out with the win),” coach Blair said.
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