DIVISION I-A BOYS SOCCER: Roadrunners capture second straight crown

Tech’s boys soccer team had experienced a little bit of everything while trying to repeat as Division I-A state champions.

The Roadrunners were targeted by opponents who wanted to knock off the reigning champs, dealt with serious injuries, and even the loss of their home field to major sinkholes.

And none of it derailed them.

Derian Salcido scored two goals Saturday to lead Tech to its second straight Division I-A state title with a 4-1 win over Sunrise Mountain in Dayton.

“It feels very good,” Tech coach Josh Jones said. “We’ve had an up and down year, but the last five games of the season I felt like we really came together.

“We’re used to playing on neutral sites. We haven’t had a home field for most of the year. We’ve just had that chip on our shoulder of we’ll play anyone, anywhere, any time.”

The Roadrunners (19-5-4) scored three times in the final 29 minutes of the first half to take a 3-0 lead into halftime, all but assuring the end result.

Julio Vargas had a goal and two assists, and Julio Del Real added a goal and an assist for Tech, which took a 4-0 lead early in the second half.

“We dominated right from the beginning,” Jones said. “We just came in and controlled the pace of play and played our style. We stressed to everyone, especially the seniors, that we needed to keep our heads.”

Tech was coming off Friday’s grueling match against Sparks, one that ended in a double-overtime tie and saw the Roadrunners advance on a penalty-kick shootout, and was facing a Miners team that it nipped in overtime in last Saturday’s Southern Region final.

“We stressed conditioning quite a bit all week,” said Jones, whose team played without two starters Friday after they received red cards in the region final. “Having almost 24 hours to recuperate, and getting two fresh faces back helped.”

Luis Falcon scored for the Miners (11-6-2) late in the second half.

“We made school history by going as far as we did in the playoffs,” Sunrise Mountain coach Brett Underwood said. “We’re going to put the first trophy in our school’s trophy case. No one is hanging their head.”