4A powers Mica Mountain and Salpointe met in the quarterfinal round of the Open Division Wednesday night and the Thunderbolts came away with a victory that had to be decided on kicks after 100 minutes of even play. The 3-3 (5-3) win sends No. 3 Mica Mountain to face No. 2 Catalina Foothills in the semifinal round to be played Wednesday, Feb. 25. No. 9 Sunrise Mountain will play No. 5 Brophy in the other semifinal match, with both squads pulling off upsets.

Sunrise Mountain beat No. 1 Sunnyside 3-1 Wednesday night on the road and Brophy beat No. 4 Verrado 1-1 (4-2). The Open championship match is slated for March 2 at Mesa High School.

Mica Mountain (17-3) beat the Lancers 3-1 earlier in the year to claim the 4A Kino Region title but Salpointe (16-5-1) came out blasting Wednesday night in the rematch, but with very little to show for it. The Lancers had several legitimate chances to score in the first two minutes at Mica Mountain but senior keeper Benjamin Weinzinger was able to keep the Lancers off the board and then Julian Ordaz put the Bolts up 1-0 in the 11th minute on the team’s first shot on goal.

The Lancers collected 23 shots in the match, with 10 coming in the first half and 11 in the second half, but the program went down 2-0 on a kick from Ordaz in the 14th minute. The constant pressure came to fruition with Andrew Kisso cutting the lead down to 2-1 in the 39th and then Jose Gutierrez-Pena tied the match up 2-2 in the 61st.

It looked like the Lancers took charge of the momentum at that point but Tate Peele put the Bolts back up 3-2 in the 65th. The Thunderbolts finished with eight shots on the night but the team was efficient with the three goals. Weinzinger had nine saves in regulation but Gutierrez-Pena tied the match up 3-3 in the 68th.

The Lancers failed to connect on a penalty in overtime and Weinzinger came up with another save on the rebound to preserve the tie. Landon McKendrick hit the left side to put Mica Mountain up 1-0 in the kicks phase and then Weinzinger came up with another save to put the Lancers at a severe disadvantage.

Ordaz made it 2-0 and then Diego Ascencio-Gonzalez hit the top shelf to cut the lead down to 2-1.  Cameron Turner connected to put Mica Mountain up 3-1 and then Kisso made it 3-2. Grady Coleman made it 4-2 and then Gutierrez-Pena made it 4-3. Colin Douglas came up with the lead and he hit the left side of the net for the 5-3 victory.

Salpointe won the last five 4A state championships in a row and the last six of seven. That streak also included a 4-2 victory over Mica Mountain to win the 2024 state championship. Catalina Foothills has four state championships with the last coming in 2011. Sunrise Mountain won the 5A championship last year and Brophy won three straight 6A titles from 2019-2021.