Stallions streak towards another state title berth

American Heritage-Delray off to a 13-0 start

Published December 2nd, 2007

By Mario Sarmento
SPORTS EDITOR

For the past five years, few programs have been as successful as the American Heritage-Delray girls soccer team.

Under head coach Steve Burgess, the Stallions have won two state championships and have appeared in the last four state title matches.

But this year, Burgess may have his best team to date.

The Stallions have cruised through the regular season thus far with hardly any bumps, and Wednesday they improved to 13-0 with a relatively easy 2-0 win over Boca Raton High, another of the top teams in the area.

The Lady Bobcats joined a growing list that includes other area teams like West Boca Raton and FAU High.

Heritage has also defeated top teams like Class 6A regional finalist Cypress Bay, Class 4A regional finalist Merritt Island and Class 6A state semifinalist Lake Mary.

“I don’t think you can ever think you’re going to be 13-0 (with the teams we’ve played),” Burgess said.
“Ten days ago I must admit I was concerned that, are we peaking in November when we’ve still got two months of a season left? As well as we are playing, I’m still seeing a lot of things I’m not comfortable with.”

That included the way the Stallions started the match against the Bobcats, controlling play for the first five or six minutes but allowing a quality shot by Bobcats forward Sam Major. It turned out to be one of only two shots the Bobcats would get off all night, both by Major.

A trio of freshman defenders, Melissa Bergstein, Tara McNab and Miranda Fyfe, all stuck to the senior like flypaper, and when Major did get a little space to receive the ball and make a move, she was often confronted with another Stallions defender obstructing her path.

The freshmen are three of an astounding 15 girls who are in ninth grade or lower that compriese the 26-player roster.

In fact, the first goal of the Boca Raton match was scored by an eighth grader, Tatiana Panagos, who looked like a senior when she gathered a through pass from sophomore Christian Cobb and beat Caitlin Woody.

It was Panagos’ 11th goal in 13 matches.

“She’s a very good player, she’s very coachable, she’s very humble – despite how good she is,” Burgess said.

“You can tell she wants to get better, she wants to go to the highest level she can go. And when you have players like that, that gets a little bit contagious. And now you’ve got other players who maybe didn’t practice as hard before, and now they’re seeing what she’s doing and they’re trying to emulate her.”
The veteran leadership comes from senior midfielder Olivia Elias and senior forward Stacey Payne.
The duo combined for the second goal against Boca Raton, when Elias stole the ball from a defender and found a breaking Payne on her right with a perfect lead pass. Payne did the rest and finished for the clinching goal.

“When everybody else sees the ball movement between those two, when they move the ball really quickly – they’re excellent finishers, the touches on the ball, the tricks that they do – you learn by playing with kids that can do that,” Burgess said.

It didn’t take Payne long to see that despite the abundance of youth, the Stallions would be fine this season.

“I had no idea because I’d never seen anyone play before, but once I saw them start practicing, I thought so,” she said.

Burgess, aiming for a fifth straight trip to the state final and third championship, said this team has the potential to be the best he’s had so far.

“I think technically, as far as their technical skill, yes it is,” he said.

“The team we had two years ago when we won, not as good technically, but it just all came together. These girls certainly appear right now to be on the same page and getting on with each other and supportive of each other and that’s just as important as anything we can do technically and tactically on the field.”