American Heritage-Delray tops St. Thomas Aquinas

DELRAY BEACH American Heritage-Delray was ready for revenge.

After St. Thomas Aquinas squashed the Stallions’ state title hopes last season with a 10-9 overtime win in the regional finals, the two top squads met again on a scorching Saturday afternoon in a rematch of last year’s thriller.

With both teams entering the contest unbeaten, the stakes were high once again between the rivals. But this time, it was American Heritage who was celebrating at the end.

After taking a one-goal lead into halftime, the Stallions ran off eight unanswered second-half goals to outlast the Raiders 15-7.

“We came out flat in the first half,” said American Heritage-Delray coach John McClain. “I told the team, ‘We’ve got to come out of the gate fast like we’ve been playing the whole entire season. We’re going to knock back as many as we can and we’re not going to stop.’ I’m so super proud of this team.”

Louisville commit Allegra Catalano scored five goals, while Syracuse commit Caitlyn Wurzbuger tallied with two goals, seven assists for Heritage-Delray (9-0). Payton Wainman and Sara Palmisano each fired in three goals.

“It’s like Duke basketball,” McClain said of his team’s weapons.” We’re a balanced offense, a balanced defense. Holding a team like that to seven goals? It says a lot about our defense. For us to do that well against them was an extraordinary feat.”

St. Thomas Aquinas (9-1) junior midfielder Carly Steinlauf, a Johns Hopkins commit, was dominant on the afternoon, scoring a game-high six goals. Morgan Lusk notched 10 saves in net, while Kaitlyn Michaud had one goal and seven draw controls.

The Raiders jumped out to a quick 2-1 lead on Heritage-Delray, thanks to a pair of Steinlauf goals from oneon-one dodges. The Stallions began to settle in though, taking a 5-4 lead after the first half.

In the second, HeritageDelray’s depth showed as the team ran off six goals in a five-minute stretch to put the game out of reach.

“That score, 10-9 from last year, has been engraved in our heads,” Catalano said. We pushed back and practiced hard to beat them.”

“We just knew if we attacked from the top, we were going to get stronger and keep on going. Down at the bottom, since Caitlyn [Wurzburger] was shut, we had to use different options and have that depth to use them.”

wdusenbury@sun-sentinel .com or Twitter @dusereport