Viera doubles up Fort Myers to capture 6A boys soccer state title

Yordan Torres scores twice to pace the Hawks

DELAND, FLORIDA – Yordan Torres scored two goals Saturday, and the Viera Hawks withstood two Ricardo Louis goals to defeat Fort Myers 4-2 in the Class 6A boys soccer state final.

Max May added a goal and an assist for the Hawks (21-0-1), who also got a goal from Alex Canales.

Viera got a pair of goals from Yordan Torres and defeated Fort Myers, 4-2, in the 6A boys soccer state championship game, Saturday / Photo by Lynn Ramsey

Fort Myers (21-2-1) was trying to win its first state title since a 1999 Class 5A crown.

The Hawks won their first title. Viera fell in the 2022 6A final 3-2 to Doral Academy. In that game, Viera trailed 2-0 and rallied to tie the game before falling late.

Torres said that focus helped the Hawks overcome late first-half miscues. May said the Hawks had to play as well as they did last year, but start quicker.

“We needed to stay concentrated the entire 90 minutes,” Torres said. “(Fort Myers) had three penalties because of lack of concentration, which bit us. We came back and had a talk in the locker room. It was good. The game plan worked.”

May put the Hawks up 1-0 when he dribbled to the edge of the 6-yard box and beat the keeper in the 11th minute.

Five minutes later, Torres lofted a shot from just inside the midfield line, and it flew over the keeper and into the goal for a 2-0 Viera lead.

“I saw runners coming in,” Torres said. “I had to put it up high. Honestly, it went straight to the goal, and the keeper was way too far up. It went right over him..”

However, they had to defuse a Fort Myers offense that kept Viera under constant pressure. Louis pressured Viera defenders into allowing three penalty kicks in the span of 4:24.

Michael Krzeminski was wide right on the first with 13:54 left. But the Green Wave continued pressuring Viera. With 9:40 left, Louis drew a foul and buried the penalty kick to cut Viera’s lead to 2-1. Twenty seconds later, Louis drew another foul and buried another penalty kick to the tie score 2-2.

“He’s a game-changer,” said Fort Myers coach Chris Reid.

Canales then broke the tie with 5:31 left in the half. May lofted a 35-yard free kick to the right corner of the 6-yard box. Canales then headed it just inside the right post to put the Hawks up 3-2.

“They’re a very defensively organized team in their central part,” May said. “Getting the ball wide and attacking their wingbacks is what really helped us out.”

Torres got another goal when he lofted a corner kick off the post, off a defender and in with 33:16 left in the game.

However, the Green Wave continued to test the Viera defense. Viera goalkeeper Alvey Kaufman made five saves.

He said the Hawks have faced adversity before, and the defense and midfield had each other’s backs.

“We went into halftime and said we had to stand them up and slow them down and get coverage behind the ball,” Kaufman said. “In the second half it worked.”

Fort Myers got to the 2022 region semifinals. They overcame adversity of Hurricane Ian.

“We just stick together,” Reid said. “This group has a lot of seniors. They all stuck together. Even through a hurricane, they still wanted to practice.”