American Heritage boys follow its girls and secure a soccer state championship sweep

Amazing.

Almost as if they were in lockstep with each other, not 24 hours after the Plantation American Heritage girls’ soccer program re-emerged to the top of the soccer world with a state title after a three-year drought, the Heritage boys came out and did exactly the same thing on Saturday afternoon.

With senior Juan Otero leading the way, the Patriots overcame a sluggish start in the first half and secured a 3-1 victory over Naples in the Class 5A state championship game at Spec Martin Stadium.

After winning back-to-back state titles in 2018-19, the boys program, just like the girls who had last won the title in 2019 suffered through a dip in postseason success only to hang in there and put it back together this season.

Otero finished with the “hat trick” scoring all three of this team’s goals as the Patriots finished 19-1-2, capturing the program’s eighth state title. Combine that with the girls having 12, the combined 20 state titles tied St. Thomas Aquinas (15 girls, 5 boys) for the programs with the most in the state, well ahead of the closest pursuer, Orange Park St. John’s Country Day at 14.

It also marked the third time that the two programs have won titles in the same year, matching the feat in 2019 and 2005. The eighth title now has the Heritage boys just one behind Clearwater Central Catholic for the most in the state and tied with Miami Gulliver Prep, which won its eighth on Thursday.

“Here at American Heritage we’ve created a culture and that culture is our programs supporting each other all season long,” Heritage coach Todd Goodman said. “Even when either of us is going through struggles, the girls have supported us and there’s been reciprocation on our end. So for both of us to return to the top 24 hours apart of each other, it’s twice as nice.”

Sure enough, as the Heritage boys ran towards their fans to celebrate following the final whistle, 10 members of the girls team, who could’ve gone home on Friday night after winning their title but stayed instead, were right in the front row cheering them on.

“This whole season we’ve been back and forth to each other’s games and always come out and support each other because it’s a group effort,” said senior Dori Johnson, who is off to Grambling State in the fall to continue her soccer career at the next level. “They were here for us yesterday so we had to be here for them today. We know that we’re one big old happy family and that’s how we’ve both made it this far.”

The way things started, it sure didn’t look like the boys were going to be able to match the girls as Naples (16-5-3), looking for the program’s first state title and making its first appearance in a title game since 1995, dominated the first 30 minutes of the game.

The Eagles’ two forwards, Ty Collins and Harvey Sarajian were relentless with their pressure, constantly created chances down low. Just 12 minutes into the game, it paid off when Sarajian fed Collins down in front of the net and knifed it past Heritage keeper Hernando Ardila.

Naples continued to control the pace, constantly winning 50-50 balls and creating more scoring chances. But Heritage managed to keep them out of the net before the momentum-changing moment arrived.

It came 36 seconds before halftime when there was a scrum down low for a loose ball in front of the Naples net. Even though the Naples bench did not agree with the call, the whistle blew as Eagles keeper Kevin Reyes was called for a foul on Wylie Shaw.

Otero stepped up and calmly drilled the penalty kick into the bottom right corner of the net and it was 1-1 at halftime.

“That was huge for us,” said Otero after the game, soaking wet from a water cooler bath. “We had really struggled the entire first half and to be honest, they had dominated us. Once we got things tied up, we were okay.”

The Patriots then took the lead with 19:55 left in regulation when Nicolas Weyenberg fired a perfect through ball pass down low to Otero who found himself one-on-one with Reyes and drilled it into the bottom left corner of the net.

Otero added his third and final hat trick goal with 3:30 left as the Heritage bench erupted in celebration.

“What an amazing day,” said Otero, who is on his way to Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “I don’t think I’ve had three goals in one game in years and to do it today on this stage in my biggest game and the last game of my high school career, you couldn’t dream it up any better. It’s also so cool that we did it 24 hours after the girls won it. It says a lot about the dedication to the sport that exists at the school, both guys and girls.”