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Aztec sports update
Lady Aztecs knocked out in state soccer semi-finals

By Brian Gomez

Although the Corona del Sol High School girls varsity soccer team has gone through this several times before, the painful feeling of broken hearts and shattered dreams still hurt just as much last week.

In less than two hours, tears of joy turned into sobs of sadness. Instead of presiding over a victory celebration at Chandler High’s Austin Field, Corona head coach Matt Smith was left addressing his rain-soaked players on an abandoned set of cold bleachers.

The only sign of light was that coming from a dim bulb, not the brightness that goes along with being in the Class 5A state championship game.

“Sometime in a month or two, it will probably feel pretty good,” said Smith, whose team was eliminated last Wednesday from the state semifinals after suffering a 5-0 loss to Scottsdale Horizon, the eventual state champions.

“It hurts to not go any further because we were capable of it. That’s the hard part.”

The sting of the season-ending defeat may not have been as bad, had the Lady Aztecs (13-6-2) not been knocked out of the state playoffs by the Huskies (21-1-3) in each of the previous three seasons.

Smith thought things might have been different this time around, but Horizon struck for two goals in the first half and used a stifling second-half defense to keep Corona at bay.

“We were a little timid early and then we just couldn’t get any momentum going,” Smith said.

“That’s a credit to Horizon. The last three years, for certain, they have been the best team in the state.”

The Huskies drew blood in the 12th minute of the first half on the strength of senior defender Krystle Turner’s low-lining shot that whizzed past Corona senior goalkeeper Kim Kukla.

They tacked on another goal 18 minutes later when freshman midfielder Mallory Fox lofted a high-arcing shot over several Corona defenders and around the outstretched arms of Kukla.

“We just wanted it more,” Turner said. “Kim Kukla said that when they beat us in the Fiesta Bowl finals, and it just pumped us up.”

The Aztecs were denied on a pair of scoring chances in the first half. Both of Corona junior midfielder Shaylyn Scott’s free kicks were stopped by Horizon junior keeper Megan Currey, who posted a school-record 22 shutouts on the season and didn’t allow a goal in five state playoff games.

Sophomore midfielder Kaitlin Baum came up empty early in the second half when her cross was deflected out of bounds. Corona junior midfielder Blaine Dugan’s pair of line drives midway through the second half were caught by Currey.

“You’ve got to sneak out a goal or two on them here or there,” Smith said. “Their kids in the back are rock solid and they’ve got some seniors up top.”

The Huskies put the game well out of reach with 26:44 remaining when senior defender Michelle Deatherage blasted a shot into the top corner of the net. They added insult to injury with two more goals in the final seven minutes.

“Each of the last three years we’ve lost to them in the quarterfinals, and walking in each time, we really doubted whether we belonged and whether we could beat them,” Smith said. “We came in really believing that we could play with them and that we had the ability to beat them. The hard part is that you don’t gain anything if you don’t risk everything, and they risked everything.”

Some say the No. 3-seeded Aztecs didn’t stand a chance against No. 2-seeded Horizon, a team that has advanced to the state finals in each of the past three years. Others think Corona earned its passage to the promise land, despite being highly underrated for a majority of the season.

The Aztecs proved their worthiness in the opening rounds of the state tournament by sneaking past No. 2-seeded Mesa Red Mountain in overtime, before upsetting a pair of top-seeded teams.

Corona got goals from Dugan, Scott and sophomore striker Ashley Cain in its 3-2 victory against Glendale Ironwood. Baum tallied three times and senior strikers Krystal Kovach and Ali Kraus each scored as the Aztecs celebrated a 5-0 win over Avondale Westview in the state quarterfinals.

“We finished as one of the top four teams in the state, which we were,” Smith said. “It wasn’t a surprise. We put it together when it counted and we got ourselves to a place where you had to play your best game, but we didn’t have our best game.”

Corona will lose nine seniors to graduation, including captains Kukla, Kovach and senior defender Stacy Chamberlain. Also gone is senior Kendra Allen, who missed the entire season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“They were committed to anything, no matter what we threw at them and no matter what we asked them to do,” Smith said. “So many kids in today’s day and age want to question everything, but they worked their tails off and gave you everything they had and we just came up a little short.”

Did you know?

The Aztecs hadn’t made an appearance in the semifinals since 1996, when they won the state championship.

Corona boys also bounced from state

No. 2-seeded Corona cruised to a 6-0 win over No. 3-seeded Mesa High in the first round of the Class 5A boys soccer state tournament before sustaining a 3-2 loss to No. 1-seeded Chandler Hamilton. Junior midfielder Jason Cascio netted the game winner in the 18th minute of the second half for the Huskies (18-2-2) when he streaked across the goal box, corralled a corner kick from senior midfielder Brett Meskill and drilled a header into the back of the net.

“It looked like my player got run right over the back and there was no call,” said Corona head coach Fran Bader, whose team (15-5-1) got its two goals in the first half off the foot of senior forward Dave Oberholtzer.

Reach the reporter at brian.gomez@wranglernews.com.

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