South Dade boys win first GMAC soccer title; MAST girls avenge loss

South Dade needed penalty kicks to knock off Columbus and Palmetto earlier this week in the first two rounds of the Greater Miami Athletic Conference boys’ soccer tournament, so every Buccaneer felt a little bit of relief wash over them when Damien Lucero’s long-range missile gave South Dade a three-goal lead in the second half of the title game Friday.

The Buccaneers knew their defense could do the rest, and it did: South Dade finished off a 3-0 win against Reagan at Traz Powell Stadium to hoist the GMAC trophy for the first time in program history.

“It’s special,” South Dade defender Emilio Mollinedo said. “We’ve worked hard for this, and we talked about it since last year. Last year, we came up short. This year, we had a goal, and we accomplished it.”

A year ago, the Buccaneers (12-1-4) won a district title and reached the Florida High School Athletic Association playoffs for the first time in more than a decade. Now, South Dade has another trophy to add to its trophy case and a statement win to kick off the most important part of the schedule.

On Monday, the Buccaneers, who were the No. 7 seed in the eight-team tournament, upset the No. 2-seed Explorers in Miami. On Wednesday, they scored another upset against the Panthers in Pinecrest.

Meanwhile, the Bison (7-4-3) scored a pair of upset wins in the first two rounds, too, to set up a meeting between the bottom two teams in the field Friday in Miami. After it needed penalty kicks in each of its two upsets, South Dade made easier work of Reagan in the GMAC championship. The Buccaneers scored in the 16th and 26th minutes to take a 2-0 lead into halftime, then quickly put away the Bison in the second. After he had to stop multiple penalty shots in the GMAC semifinals, Buccaneers goalkeeper Rony Guevara needed to make only two saves for a clean sheet in the finals.

“Game plan was score first, bring them down and us defense do our job,” Mollinedo said.

At halftime, Lucero urged his teammates not to be complacent with a 2-0 lead. A two-goal lead, he reminded them, could be one of the most dangerous leads in the sport.

The forward made sure South Dade didn’t have to worry long. In the 44th minute, Lucero launched a shot from outside the box for a highlight-reel goal. His teammates mobbed him, both because of how impressive the goal was and because they could feel a historic trophy coming.

“The quarterfinal rounds of GMAC and the semifinal round of GMAC were taken to penalties, so it kind of forced us to be ready for this,” Buccaneers coach Daniel Cordova said. “We already went through the fire just getting here. We should be able to get this done.”

With one trophy in hand, the Buccaneers are now staring down bigger goals.

“It just means to keep going. Our job isn’t done yet,” Mollinedo said. “We still have districts. We want to make it further than we did last year in regionals.”

MAST STOPS PALMETTO RALLY

In a matter of minutes, a once-certain MAST Academy victory was hanging by a thread in the girls’ GMAC final. The Makos’ three-goal halftime lead shrunk to one in the final five minutes after Palmetto scored twice in just three minutes. The Makos badly needed an answer—either on offense or defense.

Of course, MAST turned to its captain. In the final five minutes, Camilla Flack set up two goals and scored another to turn the game back into a rout, and a 7-3 victory for the Makos, avenging their championship loss from a year ago.

“I was honestly incredibly impressed, but not entirely shocked,” MAST coach Rob Suarez said. “These kids have showed guts all year and I’m just proud to be able to coach such an incredible group of girls.”

Both the Makos (11-4) and Panthers (10-3) played without their regular goalkeepers, and so neither side felt like any lead was safe. The final 10 minutes at Traz Powell Stadium proved why.

Palmetto midfielder Raya Kempler scored her second goal on a deflection in the 72nd minute and then capped a hat trick with a long-range goal in the 75th to cut MAST’s lead to 4-3. The Makos, then, needed only a minute to answer and only five to turn the game back into a blowout.

First, Flack set up MAST sophomore Chiara Gutierrez for a deflection goal in the 76th minute to push the Makos’ lead back to 5-3. Next, Flack delivered another assist to MAST attacking midfielder Luisa Verswyvel for her third goal of the game to push the lead to 6-3. Finally, Flack scored her second goal of the game in the 80th minute to finish off a statement win for the Makos and their first GMAC championship since 2014.

“This means everything to me,” Flack said. “It proves that my team can go further than expected in other years. I’ve been on this team for five years, since eighth grade, and I’ve always dreamed of winning something big like this and last year we were short, last second, to the same team, so it felt really good to get revenge back.”

Although the late flurry ultimately iced the game, MAST really won the game with a dominant first half. Flack set up Gutierrez for her first goal in the 16th minute to put the Makos up 1-0, then Verswyvel’s first goal made the score 2-0 in the 21st. MAST added a free-kick goal from Makos midfielder Nyla Haynes in the 34th minute and another goal from Verswyvel in the 40th to go into halftime with a 4-1 lead.

The Makos attempted six shots in the first half—five on goal—and scored on four of them.

“The intensity, the intelligence to make sure we held possession—they just followed the plan to a T and worked out in our favor,” Suarez said.

MAST has had close calls in the GMAC tournament in past years—including a loss to the Panthers in the title game last year—and now have an elusive trophy to add to their trophy case.

Even though the game was unusual, MAST proved it can more than hang with one of the state’s premier programs by winning it.

“We respect the hell out of Palmetto. They are the premier public schools team, so we knew we had our work cut out for them and we did not take them lightly,” Suarez said. “We sure as heck put a statement out there for everybody else.”