One’s enough PREP BOYS SOCCER

PK lifts yC over Lake Havasu in OT

On a wet and slippery field at Ricky Gwynn Stadium, the Yuma Catholic Shamrocks earned a big bounce back victory in a tough match against 5A’s Lake Havasu.

The game was locked at 0-0 for over 90 minutes before YC senior forward Sebastian Quintero delivered a low screaming penalty kick into the bottom right corner of the net.

“It’s always an advantage for a striker to get the one-on-one situation with the goalkeeper,” YC coach Ralph Evans said. “We kept telling our guys to be aggressive in the box. A penalty kick goal is the same as any other goal.”

The lone goal was all the Shamrocks (1-1 AIA) needed in Thursday’s win.

YC, participating in the 3A conference, was beaten handedly in their season opener Tuesday night 5-1 by ALA-Gilbert North, but erased that memory fairly quickly as they got a jolt of confidence moving forward.

“It’s definitely a boost,” Evans said. “I told our guys they had it in them, they just had to play our game and not theirs. We have a lot of work to do, but to come back and win this game...and get over the hump of playing our two toughest opponents to start the year and we have to work on getting better.”

The opening half favored the Knights (1-1) as they controlled possession for the majority of the minutes and kept the Shamrocks’ defense on their heels. After allowing five goals in the season opener, goalkeeper Luis Olmos pitched a shutout.

YC’s defensive effort certainly contributed to Olmos’ performance.

“It doesn’t look good on the goalkeeper when you allow a ton of goals,” Evans said, “but when the guys in front of him don’t do their job, there’s not much he can do.”

“Tonight, our defense did a little bit better and in the second half we were a lot more cohesive. Olmos is a very good goalkeeper and he didn’t lose his focus.”

Olmos’ best stops of the night came in the early stages of the second half when he made two diving deflections

6 p.m. to keep the Knights off the scoreboard.

“He stepped up and was a game changer for us,” Evans added.

Despite not scoring until the overtime period, the Shamrocks played much better in the second half as a team. Evan’s rotation includes just two seniors in the starting lineup while several underclassmen – including two freshman – see meaningful minutes.

“We’re a young team and trying to get continuity and communication improved,” Evans said. “We haven’t been very fluid and tonight I told them to play like we practice...Tonight we did a lot better. I think Lake Havasu was expecting to come out on top well before the game started.”

Yuma Catholic will try to build off Thursday’s momentum-swinging win when they head to Pusch Ridge Saturday.

PHOTOS By randy HOEFT/YUMA Buy THESE PHOTOS aT yuMaSun.COM YUMA CATHOLIC’S ISAYAH ROOKS (21) gets up in the air to head the ball in front of Lake Havasu’s Hector Hernandez during the first half of Thursday night’s game at Ricky Gwynn Stadium. SUN

YUMA CATHOLIC GOALKEEPER LUIS OLMOS (left) gets up in the air to make a save in front of Lake Havasu’s Daniel Espino during the first half of Thursday night’s game at Ricky Gwynn Stadium.

YUMA CATHOLIC’S SAUL MARTINEZ (16) attacks the ball in front of Lake Havasu’s Anthony Reyes during the first half of Thursday night’s game at Ricky Gwynn Stadium.

PHOTO BY randY HOEFT/YUMA SUN BuY THiS PHOTO aT YumaSun.COm YUMA CATHOLIC’S SEBASTIAN QUINTERO (5) tries to move the all past a sliding Angel Casteneda of Lake Havasu during the first half of Thursday night’s game at Ricky Gwynn Stadium.