Jensen Beach boys soccer wins first district title since 2009

BOYNTON BEACH -- Jensen Beach came to Palm Beach County in its Jacksonville Jaguars-colored teal soccer jerseys and did something as special as the NFL team's playoff berth.

After fallling  behind 1-0, the Falcons scored three goals in the final 10 minutes of the first half and hung on for a 3-2 victory Tuesday over American Heritage to capture its first district championship since 2009.

Gavin Harte and Jack James connected on two of the goals to secure the District 13-4A title and move its record to 8-3-1. Shein Norr had a goal and assist for American Heritage (8-6-2) in a match played at a neutral site, Somerset Canyons.

“It’s real big, not having a trophy here since 2009,’’ Harte said. “Jack and I have been grinding together all season. “That relationship has been there all season.’’

Both teams move on to state regional play but this was a wonderful victory for Treasure Coast soccer.

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“The last four games we suffered a couple of losses, but we talked about resilience and what are we going to do to respond to this,’’ Jensen Beach coach AJ Diaz said. “We’re a resilient team. That’s why we have this trophy today. We’ve been down a goal a couple of games and we were able to respond.’’

Give American Heritage credit for not giving in after falling behind 3-1 at intermission, swarming the net in the final minutes at 3-2, gunning for the tie.

“We were knocking on the door,’’ American Heritage coach Victor Sanchez said. “I'm proud of the effort they gave. Kudos to Jensen for holding us off.’’

American Heritage opened the scoring just three minutes into the contest when Norr  connected with Nathaniel Bonaforte for a tap-in before losing all momentum.

But Norr scored with 30 minutes left on a shot that was deflected by a Jensen Beach player to make it 3-2 and American Heritage pressured the Jensen Beach goal in the final minutes.

Boniforti and Jake Stansbury were kicking at the ball in the goal mouth with 5 minutes left but the Falcons goalie stopped it and covered up the ball to preserve the win and set off a wild teal-colored celebration.

"They are a great team but we played a great game,'' James said. "It was amazing.''

After falling behind 1-0 in the third minute, Jensen Beach started taking the better of the action with 28 minutes left in the half and erupted for a hat-trick of goals.

“Defensively, there was a big gap through the middle,’’ Sanchez said. “We made adjustments at halftime.to do a better job with defensive transition. it definitely hurt the breakdowns in the middle.’’

Indeed, Jensen Beach took advantage when Harte crossed a ball from left to right and a hustling James punted it in easily into the open right side of the net to tie the match at 1-1 with 10 minutes in the half.

There was some frustrated yelling on the American Heritage defensive line after that tying goal and the Delray Beach team never recovered until late in the game.

The Falcons weren’t done. Three minutes later, Jahir Jean-Baptiste blasted a 20-footer with his left foot to give the Treasure Coast school a 2-1 lead – a score that the Jensen coach cited as the official momentum-turner.

For the final encore, Harte and James hooked up again. James took his feed on the right side of the net and tucked it in with ease with 2:15 left to the half.

Diaz cited his defense, though, in stabilizing the game after the early attack by the Stallions and now host the first round of regionals. “Our defensive line is phenomenal,’’ Diaz said. “Our centerbacks are young but playing like seniors.’’

For American Heritage, the season is hardly over either. Sanchez praised Norr, saying “I could put him anywhere on the field.’’ But Norr himself took blame for the Falcons’ comeback.

“i think it was just mentality – we made defensive errors in the first half we shouldn’t have done,’’ Norr said. “I have to keep my mind in the game. The first half I made a defensive error on the first goal. But we came back and hopefully in regionals, our plan is to go all the way.’’

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jensen Beach boys soccer wins first district title since 2009