American Heritage erases deficits twice to beat Pines Charter in regional soccer final

After winning back-to-back state titles in 2018 and 2019, the last three seasons have seen the Plantation American Heritage boys soccer program fall on hard times, at least by its lofty standards.

Two early regional playoff eliminations and not even qualifying for the playoffs in 2021.

But a terrific regular season that saw them ranked No. 2 in the state in Class 5A entering the playoffs got even better on Tuesday night. With a big and noisy crowd for both sides packed in the stands, Heritage dueled with rival Pembroke Pines Charter in a highly intense Region 4-5A final at Heritage.

And, after the two teams couldn’t decide things after 100 minutes of soccer which finished in a 2-2 tie, the Patriots came through with a 4-3 penalty kick victory to advance to the state semifinals.

Heritage will enter as the No. 1 seed and will host No. 4 Pensacola Washington in a Class 5A state semifinal on Saturday at 7 p.m.

“It’s funny, when you put back-to-back state titles together, you kind of take things for granted,” said long-time Heritage coach Todd Goodman. “You kind of feel like there’s a little entitlement and then reality sets in. It’s been three long seasons, we’ve had some bitter disappointments but the boys have learned their lessons of the regular season and from those disappointments from the past few years and come out on the other side.”

Goodman watched as his team battled from behind all night long.

After Nicolas Velasco gave the Jaguars (16-3-1) an early lead, Heritage’s Andres Morrall scored the equalizer just before halftime. Pines Charter then re-took a 2-1 lead on a goal from Rafael de Almeida early in the second half before the momentum swung back to the Patriots.

It started when Pines Charter’s Joshua Blackwood got a straight red card in the game’s 52nd minute forcing the Jaguars to play a man short the rest of the game. With 23 minutes left in regulation Heritage got the game tied back up again with a goal from Leonid Levitin.

Heritage forward Jason Ebanks had the best scoring opportunity in overtime when he found himself down low and in a one-on-one situation with Pines Charter keeper Massimo Lopez-Malo three minutes into the second OT and rifled a shot to the right side that was headed in before Lopez-Malo dove vertically to his left just barely deflecting the shot wide.

After both teams nailed their first three PKs, Heritage’s Agustin Covos went high over the bar on the Patriots fourth attempt and it looked good for the Jaguars.

But Heritage keeper Hernando Ardila came through in the bottom frame when dove to his left for a save. But the ball was going down the middle and he reached out with his right leg and deflected it over the net. When Ebanks came through with his kick in the top of the fifth, it was up to Pines’ Ryan Palelis to keep it going to extra frames. His kick sailed high over the crossbar as Heritage players stormed the field in mass celebration while Pines Charter’s players collapsed to the ground.

Even Goodman himself walked around to console the fallen Jaguar players including Palelis.

“I happen to be the Director of Coaching at West Pines United which a lot of those kids play there and I know many of them,” said Goodman whose team improved to 18-1-2. “The Pines Charter kids were warriors and played tremendous. Hats off to them, they gave us everything we could handle and it’s a shame somebody had to lose this game. But thankfully it’s us that are on to the final four. We’re excited and hopefully we’ll be able to size our players up for another ring.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2023 at 7:37 AM.