American Heritage tops Pembroke Pines Charter

PEMBROKE PINES — Miles Walters came off the bench to score a goal and added an assist as visiting American Heritage, the defending state champions, defeated Pembroke Pines Charter, 3-0, in the Class 3A regional semifinal for a third straight season.

“Obviously this is a rivalry game,” said Patriots coach Todd Goodman, following the match that featured five send offs. “We were very disappointed in not getting the result we wanted for the district championship, but obviously this is the bigger game. This is the game we targeted. It is just another hurdle, another bump in the road on our way back to defending our 3A state championship.”

American Heritage (14-5-1) won the regular-season meeting, 1-0, and Pembroke Pines Charter (18-5) won the district title game, 2-1. Until that loss, the Patriots had been 8-0-1 against Pines Charter.

American Heritage seized a 1-0 lead when Sebastian Vidarte found Morris Senior with a centering pass about 40 yards from the goal. Senior dribbled to his right and then found the left corner as he wrong-footed Jaguars goalkeeper Alex Benitez in the 32nd minute.

Pembroke Pines Charter missed a golden opportunity to take the lead in the 14th minute when Lukas Lemmers struck the crossbar on a penalty-kick chance.

“That cost us the game right there in the beginning of the match,” said Pembroke Pines Charter coach Alvin James, whose team saw its 10-game win streak snapped. “That brought our spirits down. We had three or four opportunities to score and we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. Then there were red cards and blue cards on both sides in the second half and that was the end of our season.”

Each team had scoring chances after that when Nick Roman had two right-footed blasts go wide from about 20 yards out in the 20th and 22nd minutes, and American Heritage’s Benji Grossi was wide on one shot and just over the crossbar on another in the 24th and 26th minutes.

American Heritage made it, 2-0, in the 47th minute when Grossi found a streaking Walters on the back post for the goal. Walters found Ryan McGowan with a cross in the 55th minute for a 3-0 lead. American Heritage, owners of six state titles, has eliminated Pembroke Pines Charter three straight years in the regional semifinals.

American Heritage, which won the state title, 1-0, over Seabreeze last year, will play the winner of the Mariner/Cape Coral game in the regional final Wednesday.