DELAND — It was, easily, the longest 10 minutes ever.
To them, it felt like an eternity. In the end, it was worth the wait.
The Sunlake boys soccer team needed to kill off 10 minutes following junior captain Elliot Hinz's go-ahead goal in the 70th minute to secure the Seahawks' first state championship.
"It did feel like an eternity, oh man," a jubilant Peter Arroyo said with a huge smile. "I can't explain in words how long the game was — like every second felt like an eternity."
The team, already down a man after a red-card ejection, stacked the box and kept Jacksonville Mandarin from scoring a tying goal — allowing the Seahawks to secure the FHSAA Class 6A state championship at Spec Martin Municipal Stadium in DeLand on Feb. 25.
The 3-2 victory brings home the program's first championship in the team's first state-title-game appearance — and one even the players didn't expect at the start of the season.
"We went from a brand new team to winning a state championship when we thought we'd have a rough season," senior captain Ricky Kase said. "We lost so many seniors, and to overcome every single adversity this season — it's just crazy when I think about the rough start, a lot of ties, a lot of losses — but there's just so many emotions right now and it's completely a blessing to be here."
Those emotions were on full display from Kase and the rest of his teammates when the final whistle blew. The players rushed to the stands, hurdled the fence and celebrated with the dozens of fans, friends and family who made the two-hour journey to DeLand to watch the match against a Mustangs team that was a state semifinalist a year ago.
Sunlake (18-3-3) hadn't been to the state tournament since four straight Class 3A final four appearances (2013-16), a stretch under father of the program Sam Koleduk, who ran it for 17 seasons (308-68-35) and produced two 60-goal scorers (Remi Pimm and Connor Gilboy).
"Everyone knows the history of this team, we all know the history and that this team hasn't been (to the state tournament) since (2016)," Kase said. "But there was no better way to go out as a senior."
Early on, it seemed Kase and his fellow seniors — all 13 of them, following the 12 who graduated in 2025 — might not go out on top. The Mustangs (16-5-2) took a 1-0 lead with a goal in the 19th minute and had the upper hand on scoring opportunities.
But Sunlake found an equalizer with just seconds left in the first half. Hinz put in his first goal in the 39th minute.
"The reason we're in the state championship in the first place," Hinz said, "is because everyone worked really hard to get here and everyone has the heart and passion to win the game, which is what we knew we had to do every minute of the game."
The Seahawks found themselves in a hole again when the Mustangs floated a goal over senior goalkeeper Jack Hanzlik in the 54th minute. But just two minutes later, Sunlake was awarded a penalty kick after senior Joseph Arroyo was taken down in the box.
Kase was tapped to take the shot — and nailed it.
"(Mandarin players) were chirping not to miss and that they had tape on which way I always go (on a PK)," Kase said. "So, I went to the other side this time."
Sunlake was in the state championship game in part thanks to Kase. He not only had two goals in the semifinal against Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas but also took the first penalty kick as the Seahawks won the game-settling shootout, 4-3.
"(Kase) never misses," Arroyo said. "He is by far our penalty shot taker, so I knew he was going to put it away."
Just eight minutes later, Sunlake went a man down when a hard foul by Dileon Smith drew a red card and ejection.
"They just kept going and bore down," second-year coach Danielle Fotopoulos said. "Once you get on a roll and start believing in each other, you can be unstoppable."
What the Mustangs couldn't stop was Hinz — his diving header off a free kick from Jairo Todd put the Seahawks up with 10 minutes remaining. From there, Fotopoulos pulled any semblance of a striker from the formation and stacked the box with the team's best defenders to hold the slim lead.
It worked.
"That last 10 minutes was way more stressful than the shootout in the semifinal — hands down," Fotopoulos said. "Longest 10 minutes of soccer I've seen."
And Fotopoulos has seen a lot of soccer.
Just in her second year at the helm, Fotopoulos holds the all-time NCAA Division I records for goals (118) and points (284) and was a member of the University of Florida team that won the 1998 NCAA women's soccer championship, scoring the winning goal against North Carolina in the final. She was also a member of the United States women's national team that won the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup. She was inducted into the UF Athletic Hall of Fame in 2008 and the FHSAA Hall of Fame in 2014. She won three state championships at Longwood Lyman High in the early 1990s.
But at Sunlake, Fotopoulos turned around a sluggish start to the season that saw the Seahawks open 1-1-3, including a 1-1 tie against eight-win Pasco. After back-to-back losses in a December tournament, however, Sunlake won 15 straight (outscoring opponents 53-14) — right to the 6A state title. The title stays in Pasco County, as Mitchell was the defending champion, though it lost in this year's state semifinals.
"It's always been an excellent program," Fotopoulos said. "Every team has always been an excellent one, whether they went to states or not. We are always expected to do big things in the tradition of this program that has made it far before. Over the past 10 years, it definitely comes from an excellent program and excellent players."
Sunlake's most excellent player in the state final, Hinz, agrees.
"This team, these seniors, are all great — they're all 100," an exhausted Hinz said, gold medal hanging from his neck. "You want to put it all on the line, and when you really want to win, you'll win."
