Heritage girls capture Class 5A soccer title
DELAND
After more or less dropping off the soccer radar by their lofty standards for the past three seasons, the Plantation American Heritage girls returned to the top of the mountain on Friday afternoon.
Battling searing mid-afternoon heat, the Patriots went back and forth with defending state champion Cape Coral Mariner for 100 minutes without a goal.
In the end, as it usually does when a game goes to penalty kicks, one goalkeeper emerges as the hero. Fortunately for the Patriots, that hero was sophomore Jillian Miliffe, who made a pair of diving saves that gave them a 4-2 victory in penalty kicks in the Class 5A state championship game at Spec Martin Stadium.
It was Heritage’s first state championship since 2019 and 12th overall, which trails only St. Thomas Aquinas (15) and
Orange Park St. Johns Country Day (14) for the most in the state. It was also coach Cindy Marcial’s sixth since taking over the program in 2012 and raised the team’s record to an impressive 12-3 when it reaches the state title game.
“The last few years have been a little tricky,” said Marcial whose team, after reaching at least the regional finals 19 out of 20 years between 2000 and 2019, was eliminated the past three seasons in the regional semifinals. “We had a lot of upperclassmen, depended on them, but this year, we only had two seniors, with a few starting freshmen and sophomores, three groups of sisters, an aunt, a niece.
“We just bonded more as a team, and that can be really important for long term success. It feels great to be back on top.”
While there were plenty of heroes on the field for the Patriots
(18-2-2) on Friday, including Sami Villaverde, Courtney Caruso, Amanda Caines and Nyema Freeman who all nailed their penalty kicks, none was more clutch than Miliffe.
After Mariner (18-5-1) got the first two kicks past her, Miliffe dove left to stop Gloria Quintanilla’s shot in the bottom third frame. After Freeman scored to put the Pats up 4-2, Miliffe did it again, diving to her left and stopping a Carly Paz shot as Patriot players rushed to mob Miliffe.
“I actually read the ball,” Miliffe said. “The way they place the ball kind of helped. When they put it down, if they kind of turn it that way [pointing to the left] it means they’re going to their right, my left and that’s exactly what they did.”
After she emerged from a celebrating crowd of teammates, Miliffe quickly sprinted over to the stands to wave to a group of Mariner students who had been chiding and needling her before the penalty kick round began.
“I definitely heard them,” said Miliffe with a wry smile. “They were kind of calling my name so I did what I had to do and then figured I would give them something to remember me by.”
But with all the heroics of her penalty kick saves, there would have been no PKs had it not been for her biggest save, that coming with just two minutes left in the second overtime.
That’s when Mariner’s Caroline Pelkofski somehow wiggled her way past a Heritage defense that had been stout all day up to that point and found herself one-on-one with Miliffe right in front of the net. Pelkofski fired off her right foot and Miliffe stuck out her left leg and got a piece of the ball, deflecting it away.
“It happened in an instant and you just don’t have any time to really think,” Miliffe said. “You just have to react on instinct, so I just came at her, couldn’t get low, just got my leg out and kick-saved it.”