Mater Lakes and Florida Christian coaches are Dade Boys' Soccer Coaches of the Year
For the first time in school history, Mater Lakes Academy reached the state semifinals and the Bears came up just short of their first state title, falling short in the final. For the first time since 2005, Florida Christian made it back to the state semis.
At the end of a pair of breakthrough seasons, the Bears' and Patriots' coaches are the Miami Herald's Miami-Dade County Boys' Soccer Coaches of the Year.
At Mater Lakes, Davide Favaro, who led St. Brendan to its first state title in 2022, has turned the Bears into a contender, too, and to earn honors as the Miami-Dade County Boys' Soccer Coach of the Year for Classes 7A-4A. At Florida Christian, Fernando Hernandez led an astonishing in-season turnaround to earn honors as the Dade County Boys' Soccer Coach of the Year for Classes 3A-1A.
Before Favaro took over in 2022, the Bears had never even been to a region championship. After missing the Florida High School Athletic Association tournament in Favaro's first year, Mater Lakes reached its first region final in 2024, then got to the state title game for the first time this year, racking up 23 wins and losing only twice.
The Bears fell behind by three goals in the Class 4A championship and couldn't quite battle back, falling 4-2 to Naples Barron Collier in their first ever trip to the state championship game.
'I'm very proud of my boys, they have been amazing,' Favaro said after the loss. 'Our team has been amazing. That's all I can say, and I am very proud of my team. I couldn't speak more positively about them.'
The Patriots, meanwhile, finished the regular season with a losing record before going on an improbable run to the final four in the postseason.
Florida Christian hadn't even made the FHSAA playoffs since 2010, but won its district tournament to grab the No. 6 seed in Region 4-2A, then ripped off three more wins to make a long-awaited return to the state semifinals.
The Patriots struck first in the Class 2A semifinals, but ultimately fell short with a 2-1 loss to Melbourne Holy Trinity Episcopal Academy.
'As much as I'm hurting for these boys right now, there's nothing but a proud feeling for what they've accomplished over these last few weeks,' Hernandez said after the loss. 'It's an extremely difficult moment right now for everyone. All of us will go through it together, feel it and learn from it going forward. There's nothing to feel ashamed of or feel bad about. Everybody did their part, we just couldn't quite finish it.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
20 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Bears QB Caleb Williams receives compelling take from ESPN analyst
Bears QB Caleb Williams receives compelling take from ESPN analyst originally appeared on The Sporting News Caleb Williams quickly erased doubts about his comfort with the offense under new Chicago Bears head coach Ben Johnson. He completed 6 of 10 passes, including a touchdown, in Chicago's 38-0 win over the Buffalo Bills last weekend. Entering his second season in the NFL and under a new head coach, Williams faces pressure to show real progress, especially with an offensive-minded coach like Johnson. He and his teammates are still adjusting to a new offense during practices and the preseason. Despite the national media's concern over Williams, one analyst is advising Bears fans to be excited about the future of the USC product under Johnson. Can Caleb Williams take the next step? ESPN NFL analyst Mina Kimes appeared on "SportsCenter," noting that Williams was able to run Johnson's offense and show glimpses of how it's meant to function, pointing out that there were shades of how the Bears head coach ran the system during his time with the Detroit Lions. "It was backups," Kimes said. "I feel like you always have to say that in the preseason, but it feels like the Bears fans should be pretty excited based on what they saw. This was the first glimpse we saw of the marriage between Ben Johnson, new head coach, play caller, and Caleb Williams. It was interesting. You saw some of the same hallmarks of the Ben Johnson offense in Detroit: Caleb was under center, condensed formations, misdirection, all that jazz." Additionally, Kimes offered a take regarding how Williams looks from season No. 1 to season No. 2 in Chicago. MORE:Colin Cowherd sounds off on Bears QB Caleb Williams' showing against Bills "You also saw Caleb look as comfortable as I have seen him in the NFL," Kimes added. "We showed earlier the scene ball that he ripped to Cole Kmet. He saw the safety drop, middle of the field open, ripped it. That's the Caleb Williams that was the No. 1 overall pick for a reason. That's the one Bears want to see—a guy who looks comfortable, accurate, decisive. Very promising start."
USA Today
5 hours ago
- USA Today
Good, bad and ugly from the Bears' preseason win vs. Bills
The Chicago Bears improved to 1–0-1 in the preseason after a dominating 38-0 win over the Buffalo Bills (1-1) on Sunday night. This game was the first action the Bears starters have seen under new head coach Ben Johnson, and neither side disappointed. The Bears dominated from start to finish with the starters and backups coasting through the Bills with ease. Chicago scored 28 points in the first half, including 21 during the second quarter. With a win like this, it's hard to find a lot of bad, but there sure was a lot of good. With that in mind, here's a look at the good (a lot), bad and ugly from the Bears' dominant win over the Bills. The Good Caleb Williams: The former No. 1 overall pick has been the biggest question mark for the Bears this offseason. How much of his rookie year was his fault? Does he hold the ball too long? Will Ben Johnson really help save his career and get more production out of him? While two drives of a preseason game won't give definite answers to any lingering questions, it's hard not to feel optimistic after Williams' performance vs. Buffalo. Williams finished 6/10 for 106 yards and a touchdown. Not to mention one of his incompletions was a good ball that was dropped by Rome Odunze. Williams got the ball out fast, worked quickly through his progressions, and controlled the tempo of the Bears offense. This was his first real-game experience with Johnson's offense, and from the eyes of the viewer, he passed the eye test. Ben Johnson: Williams wasn't the only piece of the Bears' offense that flourished — in fact, it all flourished. Tyson Bagent and Austin Reed stepped in and played well, the receivers ran routes well and found holes in the defense, and the run game didn't suffer at all. The Bears accumulated 528 yards on Sunday. But, maybe the X's and O's shouldn't be the biggest takeaway from Johnson's second preseason game with the navy and orange — his demeanor should be. With his offense tallying points and yardage like no tomorrow and his defense holding a shutout the entire game, Johnson didn't look satisfied. He doesn't want to just shutout and blowout teams in the preseason, he wants the Bears to continue to dominate into the regular season. Pass protection: The Bears allowed one sack. Yes, that's right, one. Williams wasn't sacked at all and only had to improvise and scramble around once during his two drives — four of the Bears' five starting offensive lineman played those two drives. Again, while it's hard to imagine that this is the form the offensive line will look during the regular season when facing defensive lines stacked with Pro Bowlers, it's very promising to not have to watch Williams run for his life in the backfield. The Bad Ball control: Not much went wrong for the Bears on Sunday. The only negatives were the two fumbles from running back Brittain Brown and quarterback Austin Reed. But, both fumbles were recovered. It was a pretty flawless game from Chicago and complaining about the fumbles is definitely nitpicky. But we were grasping for straws in this section. The Ugly Nothing: When you blow out a team 38-0 while totaling 528 yards of total offense and allowing just 180 total yards to the opposing team, it's difficult to find anything bad yet along ugly.
Yahoo
14 hours ago
- Yahoo
Bloomington South vs. Lawrence Central football scrimmage highlights
Watch the Panthers go up against the Bears from Indy and hear from coach Gabe Johnson after their scrimmage on Friday, Aug. 15, 2025
