YC girls pull off upset in penalties
Halfway there. The Yuma Catholic boys soccer moved to two wins away from a historic fourpeat Saturday afternoon by advancing to the 3A state tournament semifinals, and if the Shamrocks’ 2-0 quarterfinals victory over NFL Yet Academy at Ricky Gwynn Stadium was any indication, opponents will make the three-time defending state champs earn it this year.
“Kind of exciting,” coach Ralph Evans said of the win, “and a little stressful.”
Saturday was the fourth time in two seasons that the second-seeded Shamrocks (14-0 AIA) and the seventhseeded Eagles (10-2-1) have met, and it was the closest meeting of them all.
YC, which entered the game with a plus-102 goal differential in AIA play, was held off the board for the first 29-plus minutes and had to thwart several potential equalizing opportunities before extending its lead to two goals in the 64th minute.
As evident by the shot count — 20 for YC (13 on goal), seven for NFL Yet — the Eagles were content to sit back and hope to contain the Shamrocks’ highpowered attack.
That was only so successful. Junior forward Eleuterio Gutierrez drew a penalty kick that he converted in the 30th minute, and junior midfielder Jonah Franco added the Shamrocks’ second goal off a Gutierrez assist with 16 minutes remaining.
“It was a test,” Evans said. “We told the boys at the beginning of the game and at halftime, that if I was (NFL Yet’s) coach I’d be doing the same thing; loading up that defense, trying for the long balls and a quick breakaway and a lucky shot. They’re not going to outscore us, so they’ve just got to stop the bleeding and make sure we don’t score against them. And they did a pretty good job of that.”
The game was a rematch of last year’s 3A state championship game, which YC won 3-0.
Though the Eagles played several dangerous balls into the box particularly in the second half, their only real good look at goal came in the 52nd minute, when an unmarked Miguel Barrera was on the receiv-
For the first time since 2014 and just the third time ever, the Yuma Catholic girls soccer team is headed to the state semifinals.
The No. 11 Shamrocks pulled off their second “upset” in a row Saturday afternoon in Phoenix, knocking off No. 3 Veritas Prep in a penalty kick shootout in the quarterfinal round of the 3A state tournament. After regulation/overtime ended in a 0-0 tie, YC won the shootout 4-3.
“It was pretty impressive,” coach Jesus Quintana said in a phone interview. “Our girls didn’t give up, always kept battling, never put their heads down; they wanted to win. The best way I can describe it is that their perseverance was always there. I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that somehow we’d be able to pull out the win.”