Boys soccer: Tampa Prep king of the 2A world

Tampa Prep's season started on the track at the University of Tampa's Pepin Stadium.

"We started on this track right here," midfielder Anthony Baumann said. "Whenever it was, four months ago, we started on this track and we ran a couple of miles. If we didn't do it right, we did it again."

Friday night, on the field inside that track, the Terrapins (19-4-2) earned their third boys soccer state title in four seasons, and their fourth since 2005, with a 2-1 victory against Delray Beach American Heritage (24-5-1) in the Class 2A title match.

"This is exhilarating," forward Wes Sever said. "Amazing. Now I know what Matt Hebert, Sam Wiand the seniors my freshman year, and in my sophomore year Ryan Griffin, Brad Sienkiewicz, this is what it feels like to win your senior year. Never would I have thought we would have been back on this stage in front of our home crowd to beat a team like American Heritage tonight. It's absolutely exhilarating."

Sever didn't score, finishing the season with 32 goals, but he had a hand in the Terrapins' opener in the 21st minute. After an American Heritage corner kick was cleared, the Terrapins broke on the counterattack at lightning speed. Baumann picked up the ball on the left flank and angled a cross into the penalty area. Sever couldn't quite get a touch on the ball, but his leaping effort distracted his defender behind him, and the ball ricocheted off his leg and into the Stallions' net.

"Anthony played a brilliant ball, and I think I jumped too early," Sever said. "I think I might have thrown the defender off a little bit, but I mean, the luck was with us tonight."

That was true to an extent on the Terrapins' second goal, coming 11 minutes after halftime. After a nice buildup through the midfield, Sever found Zack Hebert in space on the left just outside the penalty area, and he cut onto his right foot and hit a shot that took a deflection off his marker, looping the ball over the stranded goalkeeper's head and into the net for just his fourth of the season.

As fortunate as both goals may have been, the Terrapins earned them with their hustle around the field.

"That's the only way to describe it, we made our own luck tonight," Baumann said. "If you want to call it luck, we made our own luck. We worked hard, and we set the tone tonight.

"Our coaches always told us to come out and set the tone, and we wouldn't have any trouble. We knew they had the skill, but we knew they couldn't outwork us."

The second goal made the Stallions' heads drop a little, but they made a big push to get back into the game late.

That was rewarded in the 72nd minute as Henry Penagos was brought down in the penalty area, and Verneri Valimaa converted the penalty kick.

The Terrapins were able to weather the storm for the remaining eight minutes, though, sending the team and the fans that packed the stands into massive celebration.

"It feels even better than the first two," Baumann said. "As a senior, it's just a whole different meaning.

"The freshmen stepped up, the sophomores stepped up, the juniors stepped up and they did it for us, versus the other way around.

"This program just knows how to win, it's as simple as that. We had an up-and-down season, we had a great start, people started counting us out, but this program just knows how to win, they know what it takes to win."