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District Boys Soccer
District 7-6A
Viera 1, Heritage 0
MELBOURNE– In a close battle for the district 7-6A championship, a penalty kick scored by Max May led Viera to a 1-0 win over Heritage.
With just 16 seconds left before halftime, the Hawks received a penalty kick after Heritage was whistled for committing a foul in the box. May then knocked in the penalty kick to put Viera in the lead for good.
When he stepped up to take the penalty kick, May said he felt confident taking the kick because penalties were something they focused on just days before the game.
“It was Saturday morning, two days ago, and we practiced these. You make it as game realistic as possible, you have your teammates saying whatever they can to throw you off and that really just allows you to tune everyone out,” May said. . “When I step up to that ball I know where I am going to put it and it’s a big confidence thing, so I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that I was going to score.”
Heritage worked to create chances to score and received a few big stops in the goal from goalie Aiden McAteer in the second half but were unable to tie the game.
Coming into this matchup, Viera head coach Nick Robinson said they knew the Panthers were a tough opponent to face.
“They are a tough team every single year. They are resilient, and defensively they make it very difficult as you saw tonight,” Robinson said.
While he felt his team came up empty on a few good chances, Robinson said he was happy with how the team performed defensively.
“I felt we missed a lot of clear-cut chances and lacked a little bit of composure in the final third but it’s a lesson learned for us in terms of you can’t leave teams hanging around, especially when you get to the postseason” Robinson said. “But still keeping a clean sheet is big, so I’m proud of the defensive resilience from us as well. It feels good to win a district championship.”
Heritage closes out the regular season with a record of 12-4-1. The Hawks finished the regular season with a 16-0-1 record.
District Girls Soccer
District 7-6A
Viera 2, Melbourne 1
The Viera High girls’ soccer team won a district championship title as well after defeating Melbourne, 2-1.
Melbourne ends the regular season with a record of 8-5-2, while Viera ends the regular season with a record of 9-4-3.
