South Florida HEAT's first trip to girls' soccer state semifinals ends with lopsided loss
After years of success, only to be turned away many times in the regional finals, the South Florida HEAT girls soccer team finally made it to the state final four.
But their first state 'experience' turned out to be a quick one.
The HEAT, (which stands for Home Education Athletic Teams) a collection of home-schooled students who have no school or home field, were faced with the gigantic task of taking on Orange Park St. Johns Country Day - a 14-time state champion.
The result was predictable.
Country Day, which won 11 straight state titles from 2012-22, scored just 47 seconds into the game and never slowed down, mowing down the HEAT 6-0 in a Class 1A state semifinal on Wednesday night at Spec Martin Stadium.
The Spartans, 19-3-1, advance to Saturday's 1A championship game where they will take on Hobe Sound Pine School at 1 p.m. and look to tie St. Thomas Aquinas for the most titles in the state with 15. They were tied for second last week when Plantation American Heritage won No. 14.
'We hung in there for a little while but I guess eventually the dam broke,' HEAT coach Bob Bemis said. 'But the girls never gave up, even right to the very end and I can't be more proud of them for that. All heart. What will they remember from tonight? They'll remember the experience, they'll remember the loss, but they'll also know that they left everything out here. The victory is in the effort and that's what they'll take from tonight.'
Bemis could only watch helplessly as his outgunned players did everything they could to hang in there in the first half.
Even after Calli Berang popped that early first minute goal in off a perfectly placed free kick from 20 yards out on the left side, HEAT players didn't flinch. The game was still a one goal game at the first half water break but then Country Day struck quickly.
First came a foul by HEAT player Hannah Brankamp in the penalty box giving Cece Nowicki a penalty kick which she converted and just 60 seconds later, Reygan Ropero scored off an assist from Madisyn Bowman to make it 3-0 at the half.
The Spartans then came out in the second half and slam dunked things away by scoring three goals in a five-minute span to make it 6-0 with 28 minutes left and that was that.
'We obviously knew what we had in front of us going into tonight,' said HEAT senior captain Eden Greenfield, who led her team this season with 52 goals. 'I'll admit we were pretty nervous because we had heard so much about them and everything they had accomplished. Honestly, for what our expectations were, I actually think we played better than we thought we would. Even if the score was 6-0, I'm proud of my team and really glad that we got up here and got to play here. It's always been a dream for me to play at state and that was realized tonight.'
The game also marked the end of a two-decade career for Bemis as the head coach and athletic director of the program as he announced that he was stepping down. He and his wife Gina started the ministry in 2004 and built it to the point where they once had a total of 11 athletic teams going at one time including football.
'A great run here but time to make room for some younger blood,' quipped Bemis with a wink. 'Someone a little younger, a little more into social media because athletics and athletes are changing in general. We're proud of what we built here and want to keep the success going.'
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