Santa Cruz AC U20

Marquinhos needed one touch to settle the 2026 Campeonato Acriano final, and it came against Rio Branco AC. That 1-0 in the final gave Santinha the state title in its first season in the top flight, and a route into the Copa do Brasil, the Série D and the Copa Norte for 2027.

Entrepreneur Adem Araújo set the club up on 1 November 2022, naming it after the rubber plantation where he was born, and structured it from the start as a Sociedade Anônima do Futebol rather than a traditional membership club. For its first two years Santa Cruz-AC fielded no senior side at all: it built through the Sub-11 to Sub-20 age groups, collecting state youth titles as it went. The Sub-20 team beat Estrelão to the 2024 Campeonato Acriano Sub-20, a result that carried the club into the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior the following year.

Only in 2025 did Santa Cruz-AC enter senior football, and it won the Série B at the first attempt, going straight up to the elite division for 2026. Home games are played at the Arena da Floresta, with the CT Ninho das Cobras serving as the training base. The nickname Santinha keeps it apart from the older, better-known Santa Cruz of Pernambuco.

None of that changes what the derby with Rio Branco AC already means locally.