Emporia High got one Regional revenge win out of the way. One more will get the Spartans a spot in the State tournament.
Emporia dominated Highland Park in its Regional opener Tuesday at TRYSA, getting goals from five different players and a birthday shutout from freshman goalkeeper Elvis Delacruz in a 5-0 win.
Keeping their season alive, and reaching Thursday’s Regional championship match, were more than enough motivation for the Spartans — but what made this one sweeter was avenging a 2-1 loss to Highland Park earlier this year. The Spartans entered Tuesday’s game with that Sept. 17 loss to the Scots (5-10-2) on their minds as if it were a fresh wound.
“I don’t know how they did it, but they did, and they beat us. And now we came back, and (it was) just a big revenge thing,” said Jared Schaefer, who scored a goal and added an assist in Tuesday’s win.
A goal by Jesus Saldana off an Arnoldo Torres lead pass got the Spartans (11-5-1) started in the match’s 23rd minute, and just 18 seconds later, they scored again with some help from their opponent. Schaefer stole a pass, then dribbled down the near sideline and sent a cross in front of the goal. Highland Park’s Eduardo Pelayo inadvertently knocked Schaefer’s cross into the Scots’ net, and Yonathan Pachacano, being the closest Spartan to the play, was credited with the score.
A free kick by Saul Trujillo from the far corner in the game’s 37th minute set up Agustin Armenta to knock home Emporia’s third goal.
Early in the second half, Delacruz, making his fourth start as the varsity goalie, got a stiff test that Emporia coach Angel Cornejo didn’t intend for him to get. EHS defender Nic Hrabik tripped Highland Park’s Emmanuel Opoku in the box, giving the Scots a penalty kick with 32:43 remaining in the game.
Cornejo said earlier this week that for PK situations, he’d use his old starting goalkeeper, senior Cory Obermeyer, and that’s what he intended to do this time. But as Obermeyer, now a starting forward, was trying to run to the goal to replace Delacruz, Highland Park’s Jose Pelayo booted the PK before the officials blew the whistle.
Delacruz made a dive to his left and deflected the ball up into the crossbar. It shot back down and bounced off the ground, but Delacruz got to his feet and prevented it from crossing the line.
Officials stopped play and discussed the PK before deciding it was a legal attempt — because the shot was stopped, there was no need for a re-kick. EHS was awarded a goal kick, and Spartan fans emphatically chanted Delacruz’s first name.
“(I was thinking) it’s my birthday, so I might as well stop (the shot and) make it better,” Delacruz, a Mexico City native, said through a translator, teammate Oscar Lemus.
The crowd was aware of that, singing “Happy Birthday” to Delacruz later in the second half. By that point, the Spartans had the match more than wrapped up. Not long after Delacruz’s PK save, Obermeyer fielded a ball deflected off Schaefer in the box, got some space on the near side and punched a left-footed shot into the net. In the game’s 62nd minute, Schaefer received a looping cross from Saldana from the near to the far side, made a couple of nice moves to get a clear look and lined a shot home to make it 5-0.
“The first minutes of the game, they were important for us,” Cornejo said. “Because we needed to score and just boost their confidence a little bit to get us going. And we didn’t do that at the beginning of the game — there were a few close plays on our side, and luckily Elvis stopped them, our defense was there. But after a few minutes, maybe 10, 15 minutes into the game, we started to settle down.”
Winning the Regional bracket will require one more bite of revenge. Third-seeded Salina Central (11-6), which beat Seaman 2-1 on Tuesday night in Salina, will come to TRYSA on Thursday night at 6 p.m. The Mustangs beat the Spartans in last year’s Regional championship 3-0 at Salina. This year, the second-seeded Spartans will have the winds of TRYSA and the rowdy home fans on their side.
“(We have to) just control the midfield again, just play our game,” Schaefer said. “Even if we’re down, we always come back, and we always win.”
Comments
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)