Salpointe continued to mow down the opposition Thursday (Feb. 7) in its quest to repeat as Division II boys soccer champions.

The No. 4 seeded Lancers scored four first-half goals and continued their domination of the state tournament field with a 6-0 blanking of No. 8 Queen Creek in a semifinal contest at Paradise Valley High School. Salpointe faces No. 14 seed Apollo in Saturday's (Feb. 9) title game at 1 p.m. at Campo Verde High School. Apollo edged No. 2 Greenway, 3-2, in overtime.

Sophomore midfielder Gavino Carranza scored three times and Colin O'Brien, Thomas Hope and Will Martin added a goal each against the underdog Bulldogs. Queen Creek (18-5) was hoping to find enough in its tank to pull off another upset. The Bulldogs knocked off  top-seed South Mountain in convincing fashion, 5-1, in last Saturday's quarterfinals.

The high-powered Salpointe attack went to work quickly, with Carranza scoring in the 7th minute. Martin took a turn in the 19th minute, Carranza netted his second goal in the 35th minute and Colin O'Brien put a cap on the opening half with a goal in the final 20 seconds.

Hope made it 5-0 in the 44th minute and Carranza completed a hat-trick and the night's scoring in the 60th minute. Salpointe (25-2) has now outscored its three tournament foes (Mohave, Verrado and Queen Creek), 18-1. Carranza became the fourth different Salpointe player to score multiple goals in a postseason game this year, joining Martin, Hope and Arturo Vega. Seven different Lancers have scored at least one goal in postseason play.

In Thursday''s earlier semifinal, Apollo (14-8-1) got a goal from junior Eric Carbajal in the first overtime to edge Greenway (15-4-2). Apollo has defeated No. 3 Copper Canyon (1-0) in the opening round and No. 6 Campo Verde (2-1) in the quarterfinals to get its shot at  Salpointe.

Apollo's Luis Tapia and Marco Carbajal scored six minutes apart in the firt half to put Apollo in front, 2-0. Greenway responded with goals 14 minute apart in the second half from David Borja and Mark Dogbha. Dogbha's came in the 71st minute. Apollo joins its girls team in the finals. Apollo's girls play Catalina Foothills in the D-II girls final on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Campo Verde High.