After a 16-game winning streak, including six playoff games, a fantastic season for the Niceville Eagles Boys’ Soccer team has ended. The Eagles took a tough 2-1 loss to South Florida’s Viera High School (Melbourne) at the Final Four in DeLand on February 28. 

The Eagles played the Hawks tough, but two errors would prove devastating for a Niceville team that last won a state championship in 2020. 

The first half saw plenty of back and forth from the two squads. The defending state champions, Viera, broke through at the end of the first half – when a long free throw bounced into Niceville’s six-yard box and was headed into the goal by Viera’s Achille Turo. 

The Eagles would go into halftime down a goal. 

After the halftime break, both teams continued their back and forth, with Niceville making a couple of good wide runs on the night that would come up empty-handed. 

Viera would seal the game with a second goal midway through the second half when the Hawks high pressing attackmen forced a critical error on the Eagles. Viera Junior Mikkel Jensen would use a quick through ball to double their lead. 

Niceville would return fire, but it was too little, too late. The Eagles, ranked eighth in the nation, would fall to the defending state champs. This was only the fourth game of their 25-game campaign, and they let in more than one goal in the season. 

The Eagles earned the title Region and District Champion in a season that saw them take down all their rivals in the panhandle (Gulf Breeze, Fort Walton Beach, and South Walton) They’d rack up 65 goals on their opponents, letting in just 15 all year. 

The Hawks will play South Broward for the state championship on Saturday, March 2.