Undefeated Braves top Boone for 7A title
Boone High’s first boys soccer state championship appearance in 40 years ended Saturday night with a loss to a team that fashioned a perfect record this season.
Boca Raton beat the Braves 2-0 in the Class 7A state final at Spec Martin Stadium in DeLand to complete a 28-0-0 record.
Like Boone, which finished with a 16-4-2 record a year after winning just seven games, the Bobcats senior class had never won even a district title before securing the championship with Saturday’s shutout.
Joao Negrao scored on a free kick in the first half, then delivered a perfect cross that Max Utrias was able to head into the goal with 21:13 remaining in regulation to clinch the victory.
Boca’s championship was the fourth in program history. The Bobcats also won FHSAA tiles in 1990, 2010 and 2016.
Boone, which lost in its only previous final in 1980, was trying to become the first Orange County public school to win a state title since Winter Park in 1979.
But afterward, Braves coach Claude Davis was upset about his team receiving a red card in the 69th minute.
“We lost our discipline,” Davis said. “When you lose your discipline and your respect for the game, this is what happens. Our season was built on discipline and respect for the game. [That was our] first red card of the entire season for no reason.
“… [The loss was] self-inflicted. Two individual errors, two goals. It happens. [Getting to the state final] was a great achievement for the boys. We worked hard. But we lost [our discipline] when it mattered most.”
Negrao’s free kick, which came from just outside the box, hit the crossbar and landed hard, just inside the line with 25:04 remaining in the first half. It was the senior’s 20th goal of the season.
With the Bobcats leading 1-0, the second goal came on a well-executed set play off a corner kick. Negrao made a short pass to Daniel Trani, who sent the ball back to Negrao, who crossed it into the box and found Utrias, who got his head on it for the dagger that gave Boca Raton a two-goal lead.
Boca finished the season with 107 goals and 25 shutouts.
Bobcats senior goalkeeper Alejandro Pineda conceded just three goals all season.
Boca Raton coach Marcelo Castillo, meanwhile, believes his team should be ranked among the best … and not just in the state.
“In my opinion, we have to be one of the top — if not the best — teams in the country,” Castillo said after the win. “This team has just bought into the defensive work and the defensive attitude you need to win championships.
“Offensively, we’re very talented, but I got them to buy into the fact that if we just worked and really outthought the other teams, we would go far.”