D-2 boys soccer: South Mountain slips past Sunnyslope
February 13, 2016 by Les Willsey, AZPreps365
It was a long time in coming, but South Mountain's boys broke through Saturday afternoon to give its school and district the first state soccer championship in the Division II title match.
Angel Jimenez's goal in the 53rd minute and a penalty kick in the 79th minute by Bryan Medina nailed down No. 7 South's 2-0 victory over No. 9 Sunnyslope at Campo Verde High School.
South (17-3) is only the second Phoenix Union High School District school to reach a soccer final. The other was Carl Hayden, which finished runner-up in 5A-II to Pinnacle in 2010. The last state title won by a boys team at South was basketball in 2006, a 5A-II title. Sunnyslope (15-7-1) battled toe-to-toe with South most of the way in its second-ever appearance in a boys soccer final. It came down to a fantastic goal by Jimenez as the teams began settling into second-half action.
Jimenez, a 5-foot-4 forward-midfielder, started a run from about 40 yards out. He seemed to be looking to pass, but saw defenders weren't closing all that quickly. He fired off a shot from 30 yards out. It was just slightly tipped by Sunnyslope keeper Mitchell Bacon, but manged to nestled into the far corner of the net.
"The shot he made was a great shot," Sunnyslope coach Mike Fenton said. "In this game I thought that was what it would take to win. It was a fun game. I feel bad for our guys, but we had opportunities. They had some and they got one. Congrats to South. They are classy kids."
Jimenez isn't always eager to take a shot, especially as far out as he was on the game-breaker.
"I saw the opportunity and had to take it," Jimenez said. "I got the ball and had some room. Oru team worked really hard and we're very happy."
South coach Jose Diaz felt much the same way Fenton did.
"I knew a goal was going to happen sooner or later from either side," Diaz said. "We were able to get ahead in all our (tournament) games. We had a letdown against Cibola up 3-1 and allowed them to tie and go to overtime. I'm just happy for these kids. They've worked very hard."
South got the insurance goal to ice it late as Sunnyslope made a push to tie. South got a breakaway and Bacon came up high in the box to upend the Jaguars attacker in the box. He got a red card and Medina followed with a perfect PK in the right corner of the net.