WELLINGTON – Less than three months ago, Juan Dominguez had never played a football game in his life.

But all that changed when a friend of his encouraged him to try out as a kicker at Palm Beach Central.

Our Breakthrough Player of the Week 10 shared his life-changing moment.

“I would go out and play around with my friends,” Dominguez said. “My friend Terrence Roberts told me I should go out and play. I would train by myself and I thought I wasn’t good enough to be a kicker, so i didn’t come out and try. But when I did, I found out I was not as bad as I thought i was. So, never think you’re not good enough. Just go and try out everything.”

Sure enough, Dominguez began suiting up for Palm Beach Central about two weeks before its kickoff classic game at Atlantic (Delray Beach) this past August.

“I wasn’t even supposed to get pads for the Atlantic game,” Dominguez said. “But luckily for me, it worked out.”

From the kickoff classic to the regular season, Dominguez was able to glean from his coaches and teammates on how the game itself is actually played. After several weeks of getting into a groove, the Palm Beach Central coaching staff saw fit to trust him in game situations.

The first opportunity came against Palm Beach Gardens, when the 5-for-11, 160-pound kicker/punter connected on his very field goal goal during the first half of his team’s 26-21 road win.

“It felt good,” Dominguez said. “I already have been prepared for it. I was confident. I was making it.”

The next one was something to behold.

In last Friday night’s Wellington Cup game and District 7-8A game at Wellington, the Palm Beach Central senior kicker broke a 14-14 tie by way of his 22-yard field goal that split the uprights perfectly at the 6:54 mark of the fourth quarter.

Dominguez’s field goal turned out to be the game-winner in Palm Beach Central’s 17-14 win over Wellington.

“I might be just a kicker,” Dominguez said. “But I would do anything to contribute to the team. We fight for every inch, so everything counts in a game like this.”

Palm Beach Central head coach Scottie Littles raves about Dominguez’s rapid progress over the course of this season.

“Juan is just consistently making kicks,” Littles said. “He continuously just goes over to the game field and kicks off at practice. What a big moment for him. Never played football in his career. He’s a soccer kid. To kick the game-winning field goal in the Wellington Cup, I think he’s going to have this memory for the rest of his life.”

After eight regular season games played, Dominguez is 2-for-2 in his field goal attempts. He has a 41-yard punting average and has a touchback rate of 57 percent.

“We have only kicked two field goals against Gardens and Welly,” Dominguez said. “Coach never really trusted the kick. But slowly, he’s starting to trust it. And now that the playoffs is coming up, it’s going to be needed.”

Dominguez spoke on what the Breakthrough Player of Week 10 honor means to him.

“It feels good,” Dominguez said. “It’s my first year playing football. So for me, accomplishing the stuff I have feels good. I’m not stopping here. Only up from here.”