The kind of late-February effort the stuff playoff soccer is made of was more than enough to carry the Ironwood Eagles into the 5A boys’ soccer Final Four.
The Eagles, the state …
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The kind of late-February effort the stuff playoff soccer is made of was more than enough to carry the Ironwood Eagles into the 5A boys’ soccer Final Four.
The Eagles, the state tournament’s 2-seed, punched their ticket to the semifinals with a commanding 3-0 win over 10-seed Phoenix Horizon in what was their last home match of the season on the Glendale pitch, but hardly their last game.
Ironwood advances to face 3-seed Phoenix Carl Hayden in a Final Four match bound for a 3 p.m. matinee kickoff this Saturday at Gilbert Higley.
The Eagles are seeking their first AIA state title since 2011, and their fifth under head coach Tim Beck since 2000.
“The boys were focused. It’s that time of the year for them to be focused,” Beck said after the dominating win. “When we’re focused and on our game, we’re very, very tough to beat.”
Both semifinal matchups pit the four top seeds against one another, and also give West Valley boys’ soccer fans hope for an all-West championship match. The other semifinal matchup, set for 1 p.m. Saturday, will see 1-seed Sunnyside take on 4-seed Sunrise Mountain in Tucson.
The state championship is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 25, also at Higley.
At home in the quaterfinal matchup Wednesday night, the Eagles dominated possession throughout, won virtually every challenged ball, and spent the match sending beautiful balls with precise targeting in a performance that could have been even more in their favor based on available opportunities.
At the first-half’s 21:06 mark, Ironwood cashed in a corner-kick set with a goal from senior co-captain Nate Guzman to open the scoring. Later, with just 2:07 left before halftime, junior mid Charlie Wingfield won a scrum inside the Horizon box for a second score to vault the Eagles to a 2-0 lead by the break.
A couple dazzling saves from Huskies senior keeper co-captain Jose Sande limited early second-half damage attempts from Ironwood, but the Eagles would find the back of the net again.
Junior Andre Lopez out-hustled Sande inside the box to poke one in off a deflection to cap a night three different Eagle players accounted for the three home goals.
“It doesn’t matter who knocks them in as long as they get in,” Beck said. “We have a good set-piece game from long-throws and corners. We work a lot on that; we take pride in that. The high school game, for better or for worse, is a lot of set-pieces.”
Carl Hayden side that topped 11-seed Independence 3-1 in Wednesday’s other quarterfinal. The Eagles blanked Hayden 2-0 in a regular-season matchup Dec. 17 in Glendale.
That previous result may be neutralized somewhat, however, with the teams playing on an altogether different surface for the Feb. 22 semifinal. Higley, the host pitch in Gilbert, features an artificial turf surface, which will be a first for Ironwood in 2019-20.
Beck said Wednesday night that he is hoping to arrange the team’s next practice at the Reach 11 Sports Complex in Phoenix, which also features an artificial surface, in order to get his players acclimated to the slick stuff.
“Gonna be a quicker game, a faster game,” Beck anticipated of the semifinal matchup.
Look for a doozy in the other semifinal, when 1-seed Sunnyside and 4-seed Sunrise Mountain meet.
Sunnyside has yet to allow a goal in its two state playoff matches, won by a combined score of 7-0. And not only does the matchup feature the top two leading scorers in 5A -- Alexander Huguez of Sunrise Mountain (70 points) and Fabian Mendoza of Sunnyside (56) but also the 5A Conference’s top two goalkeepers in Sunnyside’s Jonathan De la paz (0.343 allowed/game) and Sunrise’s Connor Froysland (0.550 allowed/game).
Should Ironwood advance to the championship, the Eagles have faced -- and beaten -- Sunrise once this season, in a 2-0 win Jan. 28 in Peoria. The Eagles have not faced Sunnyside.
Steve Stockmar has been with the Independent Newsmedia team since 2017. An NAU alum and Peoria resident, Steve’s community journalism pursuits focus mostly on arts & culture, education, and profiles of neighbors making a difference. In his spare time Steve plays in a vintage baseball league using uniforms and rules from the 1860s, and also acts (badly) in community theater. In addition, he has an unhealthy obsession with baseball and the Chicago Cubs.
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