SOTO-MATIC Header on a corner kick sends Bishop Noll to first trip to state final
SOUTH BEND — Bishop Noll junior Alonso Soto probably hears coach Quinn Cloghessy yelling “back post” at him in his sleep.
The statement had mostly fallen on deaf ears, at least until Saturday’s Class 2A South Bend St. Joseph Semistate.
Soto’s header off a corner kick in the 64th minute, however, gave Bishop Noll a lead it wouldn’t relinquish in holding off Fort Wayne Concordia 3-2 to clinch the program’s first trip to the state championship game.
“I was probably happiest that he was on the back post when it went in,” Cloghessy said. “It was a good time for him to finally listen.”
With the goal, Soto overcame his biggest critic — himself.
“I just know I can do better and (Saturday) I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not letting this one get away,’ ” Soto said. “Coach is definitely always screaming back post at me and I had to step up.
“I knew Bruno (Zamora) was gonna put the ball where it needed to go and I just had to be there and know when and where to hit the ball.”
After losing to Concor- dia in last year’s semistate, Soto and Cloghessy both confirmed retribution was on the team’s mind.
“We were hoping we’d get them all along,” Soto said. “They got a lucky goal on us last year, and we really wanted this one for last year’s senior class.”
Concordia (16-5-1) took a 1-0 lead at halftime on a goal from Elijah Zillman, but Bishop Noll (19-2) remained confident knowing it would have the wind at its back on the blustery afternoon.
Jaime Hernandez’s laser-like 25-yard short in the 51st minute forced a 1-1 tie. After Soto’s goal, Zamora added what turned out to be the insurance goal for the Warriors as Concordia scored in the 68th minute.
“We saw that attacks that were building with the wind against u s ,” Cloghessy said. “We knew once we had that wind, it would break open for us.”
Soto hopes that teams start paying attention to the Warriors after knock- ing off the Nos. 1 and 9 teams in the Class 2A state coaches poll.
“All the boys have worked very hard, and we genuinely feel like we deserved this,” Soto said. “This wasn’t luck or that I was just right there at the right moment.
“We knew all along we could do it. We just needed to do what we needed to do.”