HENRICO — Four years ago, Dax Booth missed a penalty kick that ended the Cox boys soccer’s season with a loss to First Colonial in the Class 5 Region A final. On Saturday, Booth stepped to the line for another penalty kick with a state championship on the line.
This time around, he drilled it.
Booth’s goal gave Cox a 5-3 advantage in PKs and secured the Falcons’ Class 5 state championship win over Albemarle after their 1-1 standoff through overtime.
“I actually thought about that,” Booth said. “I think about that all the time because I regret that freshman year. But when I stepped up, I knew I was gonna knock it home, not like freshman year.”
FINAL | Cox beats Albemarle in penalty kicks to win the 2024 Class 5 VHSL boys soccer state championship @757teamz pic.twitter.com/pMvFsBOJTl
— Michael Sauls (@mcsauls) June 8, 2024
Saturday’s win gave Cox its second state title in the last three years. The Falcons won in 2022 before losing in the final to Princess Anne last year. Head coach Santo Ripa has been there for all of them, but this year was his first state championship win as a head coach.
“There’s no better feeling,” Ripa said. “…This is my lifeline, these are my boys. To do it two years ago with (former head coach Eric Blackmore) meant so much. To do it last year and come so close hurt so bad. To do it this year and show that our belief systems and manifesting that belief system is real, it all pays off, man. I’m nothing but happy.”
After advancing to the title game by beating Riverside in penalty kicks Friday, Ripa’s team had to put up another fight to secure a win Saturday.
Cox was down 1-0 going into halftime after Albemarle’s Eric Gaitan scored with nine minutes left before the break. During last year’s championship loss to Princess Anne, goalie Sam Braidwood said all of his teammates’ heads dropped when they were losing at halftime. This year, though, he didn’t see that.
With 21 minutes left in the game, Gabe Zarate scored a goal for Cox to tie the game at 1. The Falcons then powered through four overtime periods in the grueling summer heat to penalty kicks.
“Penalties can go either way,” Ripa said. “Granted, I know for a fact I’ve got the best goalkeeper in the state being Sam Braidwood. And his presence when it comes to penalties is definitely a leg up.”
Braidwood said Friday’s penalty-kick shootout with Riverside gave him added confidence Saturday afternoon.
“You feel like you’ve just been there and done that,” Braidwood said. “We get to that overtime and we’re like, honestly, man, let’s not risk it. We know what we can do in penalties, let’s take it there. So that was our mindset closer to the end of overtime.”
Braidwood, who turned 18 years old Saturday, kept a lid on Albemarle’s attack for the second half of the game and deflected two of the Patriots’ penalty kicks. In return, he got a state championship as a birthday present.
“There’s nothing else like it,” Braidwood said. “Some of these kids I’ve been playing with since I was 7, 8 years old. I played for Great Neck Middle, Dax and Josh (Haggerty) played in the city final in middle school, ended up playing all four years with them here at Cox. These are my guys for life. I’ll remember these moments for the rest of my life. Just the constant work, constant drive that we put into this season, it ended up paying off.”
Michael Sauls (757) 803-5774, michael.sauls@virginiamedia.com
