Delays, comebacks, overtimes and penalties. A playoff match that was highly anticipated proved its worth.
Twelve miles separate the two schools. The Coppell boys soccer team and the Irving boys soccer team.
Now, 12 yards apart, Coppell senior forward Caden Naef and Irving senior goalkeeper Jair Quintanilla at Buddy Echols Field on Tuesday. The time nears 12:40 a.m.
Once again, Naef goes to the top right, clinching the win in penalties, taking the Cowboys to the next round. Coppell won the 3-3 match with a 3-1 advantage in penalty kicks in the Class 6A Division I regional quarterfinals. The Cowboys play El Paso Pebble Hills on Friday at 7:30 at Midland’s Astound Broadband Stadium in the regional semifinals.
“They call Caden ‘aura,” Coppell coach Stephen Morris said. “Whenever he has the ball, our guys know he will make the right play and he sees them.”
Coppell goalkeeper Chase Anderson had a night in penalties, keeping three out of the net out of four kicks faced, saving two diving left, and one hitting the right post.
Anderson displays his confidence in the goal jumping up and down, hyping up the crowd, and chirping at the opposition in the net.
“At the end of the day, you are trying to mess with the other person’s head and try to cause them to miss,” Anderson said. “I’m confident in my ability. That’s it.”
With lightning being in a 10 mile radius of the stadium, the game was delayed two hours pushing the start time from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. This caused the game to be chippy early, with numerous foul calls and 50/50 balls being won both ways.
“The delay had nothing to do with our game,” Anderson said. “We came out slower than we should have and we had to fight again.”
Talking about comebacks, Coppell went down early after a goal by senior defender Abel Pineda following a corner kick which got slotted in the back of the net.
Coppell responded in the first half after a beautiful run by Naef on the counter attack, finding senior forward J McGill on the left side of the field for the goal.
“Going into half we were feeling pretty good,” Morris said. “We saw them starting to wear down and we knew we could control the game in the second half.”
However, nothing was in the Cowboys’ control as senior forward and captain Ramón Guardado scored back-to-back goals in 10 minutes.
“They have some real talent on that team,” Morris said. “Once [Guardado] scored the third, we were nervous.”
However, if there is one thing that Coppell has done this season, it is finding a way to win.
“We started making errors but we’ve been a man down in one game,” Morris said. “We’ve kind of done all the things we’ve been in all those moments and had success out of those moments in this game.”
Coming off another assist from Naef, this time it was senior forward Luis Mendez Gil getting it in with 18 minutes remaining to make the game 3-2.
Time started ticking as the Cowboys had to go. Ten minutes, then seven, then a chance.
A counter attack led by Coppell defenders. Senior Liam Spiller and junior Brooks Kaiser ran free as Spiller delivered a through ball to Kaiser, who slotted it in the bottom right corner giving the cowboys the equalizer.
“I play defense, so when they moved me up the field, it was new to me,” Kaiser said. “I came in and I scored and I don’t know what was left in my head. It just happened all of a sudden and my adrenaline was to the roof.”
After an overtime that produced no converted chances, the match was sent to penalties and the rest was history.
“I’m confident our team is good,” Anderson said. “If we play our best, no team can stop us.”
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