It’s not often that a coach or standout player leaves a team in the middle of the season, but the American Heritage boys’ soccer program has dealt with both situations within the past year.

The Patriots’ four state titles — from 2004 to ’08 — have been followed by four coaches in the past four years. In fact, the 2011 playoffs were just about a week away when Marcelo Neveleff bolted from Heritage for a pro coaching job in Bolivia.

“He left us hanging in the middle of the season,” said Heritage captain Kevin Cabrera, now a senior. “We didn’t expect it all, and we were pretty upset.”

Heritage assistant coach Richard Jobson took over the program, and the Patriots were eliminated in the regional semifinals for the second consecutive year.

This season, with more time to establish his way of doing things, Jobson has the Patriots back in the state final for the first time since 2008.

At 11:05 a.m. Saturday, the Patriots (27-2-3) will play the Land O’Lakes Gators (23-3-2) for the Class 3A title. The Gators advanced by beating Choctawhatchee 2-0 behind two goals by Josh Davis, including the first one just 11 seconds in. This is the Gators’ second state final appearance and the first since they lost 3-0 in the 1999 title game.

Jobson, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, and a former standout goalie at St. Thomas University, said the main thing he instilled in the Patriots was discipline.

“When I took over, the kids thought they were better than they really were,” said Jobson, 40, who has a master’s degree in accounting and has coached at the youth level for more than a decade.

“Some of the kids didn’t buy in, and we got rid of one of our star players. The school backed me 100 percent, and the boys got in line after that.”

Jobson declined to name the player booted off but did say it happened after about seven or eight games.

Things have gone pretty smoothly ever since. The losses were 1-0 to Jacksonville Bolles and 2-1 to Plant City. The ties were to Barron Collier, No. 32 Gulliver Prep and No. 5 Montverde Academy, which finished its season 23-0-4.

On Saturday, the Patriots will face a Gators team that has allowed just one goal in six playoff games. But the Patriots have been even better, allowing no goals in the playoffs and just 14 all season.

A big reason for that is the play of senior goalkeeper Juan Cano, who has a 0.28 goals-against average and 120 saves this season.

“I think he’s the best goalkeeper in the state,” Jobson said. “He saves all the big shots.”

Cano stopped two penalty kicks in a regional semifinal win over Pembroke Pines Charter and two more in the state semifinal victory over Tampa Jesuit.

“Cano has stood out a lot this year,” Patriots senior Richard Monteagudo said. “He’s barely been scored on.”

Although defense is the strength of the team, the offense is led by junior forwards Luis Betancur (32 goals, 16 assists) and Jamar Campion-Hinds (13 goals, 13 assists).

“Every year we’ve had an obstacle, and every year, we’ve had a different head coach,” Monteagudo said. “This year, we’ve made it to the final, which is a great accomplishment. We did it by playing our roles and working hard for each other.”