This past Wednesday at Citizens Field, the Buchholz boys soccer junior varsity and varsity teams celebrated two things: a city championship and an unbeaten regular season.

Both teams defeated rival GHS, with the JV team posting a 6-0 shutout of the Hurricanes, followed by the varsity’s 9-2 win against the ‘Canes to win the Gainesville City Cup.

The JV team, which defeated Eastside, 7-0, on Monday night, finished 14-0, while the varsity Bobcats, who defeated Eastside, 5-1, ended the regular season with a 14-0-1 record.

The two programs have one other thing in common. They are both led by first-year head coaches.

“It was a great season,” said Buchholz JV coach Tyler O’Brian, a 2016 Newberry alum who played semiprofessionally. “When I had first started out, I was like, man, I don’t have to teach these kids anything. They’re phenomenal players. They just wanted it more.”

That talent was evident early in a 7-0 win at Montverde Academy, a private sports school.

“That’s just been the theme of this season,” O’Brian said. “The boys have all the skill in the world, but then they back it up. They just want it more than everybody else, and they have that grit and determination to go out and get the win every week.”

In 14 games, the Buchholz JV boys soccer team finished with 73 goals and only conceded seven goals.

Sophomore Mosas Shitama led the JV team with 16 goals and 11 assists.

“He’s the kind of player every coach hopes for,” O’Brian said. “Dangerous in front of the goal, unselfish in buildup, and truly makes everyone around him better. The numbers he put up this season are second to none.”

Isaac Covo, also a sophomore, was their second top goal scorer with 12.

“He’s his own toughest critic, and that’s what drives him,” O’Brian said. “His relentless work rate is what led him to average a goal or assist every game.”

Another similarity between the two programs is the number of goals scored.

Through 15 varsity games, the team has 75 goals for an average of 5.0 goals per game.

“This team’s chemistry is so great,” said junior forward Christian McDaniel. “The way we move the ball around the field, getting it up, down, back quickly. It’s just unstoppable, really.”

Four players have double-digit goals this season, while three have at least 10 assists apiece.

“This year, we focused on being more of an offensive team,” said Todd Rousseau, who is in his first season as head coach of the varsity team but has been with the girls and boys soccer programs for 12 years. “We don’t stop, even if we’re up. We keep going and going and going, because sometimes you get set back, you get up, you sit back, and you kind of let them come at you. This year, we just keep going.”

Leading the way offensively is senior midfielder Dylan Fitzpatrick with 14 goals.

“Dylan is not only a great player and scores a lot of goals, and plays our nine and 10 spot, but he’s also a great leader on the team,” said Rousseau, an assistant for the past two years under coach Phillip Journey, who guided the Bobcats to an unbeaten regular season in 2023-24. “He’s a kid that, on Senior Night, he stepped off the field so a player that wasn’t on the field all the time could start. That’s the kind of player he is.”

When Fitzpatrick was a freshman, he was a key contributor for the 2022-23 Gainesville High team that went undefeated until the regional final.

“It keeps me humble to know that we can go that far and not get too bent out of shape about stuff like this,” said Fitzpatrick, who had two goals and an assist against GHS. “I think other people on the team recognize that too and want to get that far, and even farther.”

Junior forward Christian McDaniel has 13 goals and 13 assists.

“He is so quick,” said Rousseau, who was an assistant under Journey on Buchholz’s last unbeaten team. “He creates panic up front for another team. He just wants to score. He’s a hungry dog up top. I mean, he wants it all the time.”

Junior Daniel Prieto (6 goals) is tied for the team lead with McDaniel with 13 assists, while junior MF Timmy Ortiz has 10.

“Danny feeds him (McDaniel) a lot,” Rousseau said. “Carlos (Cadet) feeds him a lot. If you look at our assists, it’s all around. Everybody feeds everybody. And whoever’s hot one night, we just keep going at them. And if they get hot, somebody marks them, we go to somebody else.”

Cadet, a senior forward, has 13 goals and nine assists, followed by senior forward/MF Teague McNeal, who had a hat trick against the Hurricanes, with 10 goals.

Saturday is the last playing date for district seeding.

This year’s team is ranked No. 3 in the state in Class 6A and No. 12 overall in Florida in the latest Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) rankings.

The only near defeat was a 3-3 tie at Montverde Academy on Nov. 20.

“We came out of that game with full aggression,” McNeal said. “We were attacking well, we were defending well, so I feel like the issue of playing an unfamiliar team (in the postseason) isn’t as much of a worry for us. I just think if we keep coming forward with confidence that we can definitely power through and we can get a win against those teams that we haven’t seen yet.”

In Tuesday’s FHSAA rankings, Buchholz is currently the No. 1 seed in Class 6A-District 3, followed by Bartram Trail (St. Johns), Tocoi Creek (St. Augustine), Nease (Ponte Vedra), and Matanzas (Palm Coast), which will host the district tournament.

“It’s a really, really tough district,” McNeal said. “I think we’re a really confident group of guys. We’ve been focused, we’ve been dialed in on training and getting all the aspects of our game right. I think at this point of the season, we’re at full confidence. I think we need to keep that confidence and keep going and take that into districts, and I think that’ll take us a long way.”

The district tournament play-in game (quarterfinals) is on Wednesday, Jan. 21. Buchholz will receive a bye and play in the district semifinals on Friday, Jan. 23.

The Class 6A No. 3 Bobcats, Bartram Trail (No. 4 in 6A) and Tocoi Creek (No. 10 in 6A) are among the top 31 teams in the state, regardless of classification.

“Our district is probably the hardest district in the state of Florida right now, so it’s going to be tough,” Rousseau said.

The region is even tougher.

Niceville, which is ranked No. 1 in 6A and 6th overall in Florida, is currently the top seed in 6A-Region 1, while 6A No. 2 Mandarin (Jacksonville), ranked 11th in the state, is the No. 2 seed.

At the moment, it’s about the immediate future, and a chance to compete for a district, regional and state title.

But next year?

“We have such a great group of kids coming up,” Rousseau said. “We’ve got eight starting juniors right now on the team and we’ve got some kids on the JV team that’re going to be explosive next year.”

McNeal is one of 12 seniors on this year’s team, but he agreed the Buchholz soccer program will be in good hands.

“They’re (JV team) a fantastic group of players,” he said. “I think they’ll have no issues coming up to the varsity. I know we’ll be pulling a few guys for practice, but I have no doubts that they’ll be up to speed and that they’ll be able to compete next year on varsity. They’re a very talented group. I think they’re a great group of guys to have as the next generation of Buchholz varsity.”