Heritage schools win on road, advance to state title games

American Heritage’s boys soccer team is heading to the state finals next weekend after pounding Merritt Island 4-0 on Saturday night in the teams’ Class 3A state semifinal matchup.

“We’re ecstatic,” Patriots coach Todd Goodman said. “…We’re now at our last goal which was to get to the championship. So basically, our preseason dream has now become a reality.”

“We’ve had the same formula all season long. No. 1, our depth is probably the best factor of our team. We have 22 strong, 22 players that can step up at any given moment. We’ve had a recipe this year of playing very organized defensively.”

The game featured the same two schools represented in the state semifinal in girls soccer on the same field the night before, with Merritt Island prevailing 2-1. But an early strike from one of the team’s captains helped set the stage for the script to be flipped.

Heritage got on the board courtesy of a wellstruck shot from about 20 yards out by junior midfielder Benjamin Grossi a little more than ten minutes into the game that gave the Patriots a 1-0 advantage.

“I just felt amazing,” Grossi said. “…What else is better than scoring in the state semis?”

Ten minutes later, sophomore forward Miles Walters turned with the ball about 10 yards away from goal and fired a low shot that found its way into the net, giving American Heritage a commanding 2-0 lead.

The Patriots then essentially salted the game away a little under seven minutes into the second half when a header from Alex Wallace slipped past the goal line that put American Heritage up 3-0. A subsequent goal off the head of Alex Duchene roughly five minutes later accounted for the final score of 4-0.

American Heritage will face the winner of the other semifinal contest between Panama City Arnold and Daytona Beach Seabreeze for the Class 3A state championship on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m. at Spec Martin Memorial Stadium in DeLand.

“It feels amazing,” Grossi added. “I mean, last year we came [up] short in the regional finals so coming this far this way gives us like an unbelievable feeling.”

AMERICAN HERITAGE-DELRAY 3, LABELLE 0: Alex Guichard scored the visiting Stallions’ first two goals, Douglas Phillips tallied the closing goal and added an assist, and Riley Ferch had two assists to roll past LaBelle and advance to the 2A state final on Thursday in DeLand.

Brian Lopez had three saves for his fourth shutout of the season.

GULF COAST 2, FOREST HILL 0: The visiting Falcons fell to the Sharks in Naples despite the valiant efforts of goalkeeper Ian Rouille.

Facing multiple strong efforts from the Sharks, Rouille kept the game scoreless in the first half with six saves.

In what was the best look of the first half for either team, Rouille made an initial save on a shot from Gulf Coast’s Sebastian Joffre, and quickly made a save from point-blank range on the rebound to keep the game level.

After keeping the Sharks scoreless for 40 minutes, it only took the Sharks two minutes in the second half to break the deadlock.

Joffre gathered a cross from Miguel Fletes in the box and slotted it home to give the Sharks a one-goal lead.

Continuing their struggles to keep the ball out of their half, the Falcons conceded again in the 60th minute after Frankie Rodrigues corralled a cross in the box and doubled the Sharks’ lead.

The Falcons season with a 13-4-5. end their record of