ROUNDUP: Sanchez overcomes injury to lead Chaparral into Sunrise semifinals
When Chaparral forward Francisco Sanchez went down in a heap with an injured left ankle early in the second half Tuesday, it didn’t look as though he’d even be walking anytime soon.
But Sanchez made his way back into the game, and the Cowboys are lucky he did.
Sanchez scored his second goal of the game with two minutes to play to lift Chaparral to a 2-1 upset victory over Southeast League champion Tech (12-2-3) in the Sunrise Region quarterfinals at Bettye Wilson Park.
“I had no clue that I was going to come back,” Sanchez said. “I was in some serious pain. I’ve never felt it in my life. But it’s the playoffs.”
Sanchez took control of the ball near the top of the penalty box, turned to his left, then spun back and hit a right-footed shot into the upper right corner of the net to break a 1-1 tie.
“I have no left foot,” Sanchez said. “I just had to go to my right one and take the shot.”
Sanchez also had the other goal for the Cowboys, scoring on a free kick from just outside the penalty box in the 28th minute.
Tech’s Luis Carranza tied the game seven minutes later.
Chaparral (6-6-3) plays Eldorado in the semifinals at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“We barely made it to the playoffs, but we’re here,” Sanchez said. “We’re going to work hard and go all the way to the top.”
It looked as if Chaparral might have missed its best chance in the 54th minute.
Sanchez had a shot go off the far post. Ruben Lopez gathered the ball and fired a shot that went off the crossbar, and Hugo Burciaga-Hernandez’s rebound shot went just wide.
But the Cowboys managed to stay in the game and give Sanchez a final shot.
“It’s the best feeling I’ve ever felt,” Sanchez said. “It’s my first year playing high school (soccer), my senior year, it can’t get better than that.
Eldorado 2, Silverado 0 — Moises Ramirez scored in the first minute, and the Sundevils (12-1-5) held on to eliminate the Skyhawks (9-7-2) in a rematch of last year’s Sunrise title game.
Ramirez knocked in a corner kick from Carlos Jaramillo to give the Sundevils an early cushion.
“We wanted to score early,” Eldorado coach Gerald Pentsil said. “I didn’t realize it would be that early, but we wanted to score early.”
Josh Cormier knocked home a rebound in the second half for Eldorado, which had been eliminated from the playoffs by Silverado the last three seasons.
“We couldn’t allow a team like Silverado to stay in the game,” Pentsil said. “We had to get that second one and allow us to play some possession.
Alberto Alvarez had six saves to get the shutout and also got some help from his defenders, who cleared two shots from the goal line. Silverado also had two shots go off the crossbar in the second half.
Las Vegas 4, Coronado 1 — Jaime Toscano scored twice to help the Northeast League champs eliminate the Cougars (8-6-3).
Juaquin Rivas and Danny Sanchez added goals for the Wildcats (12-0-3), who play Green Valley in the Sunrise semifinals at 4 p.m. Thursday.
Brock Morrison scored for Coronado.
Green Valley 2, Valley 1 — Andrew Buendia’s goal just before halftime put the Gators up for good.
Tim Shue added a goal in the first five minutes of the second half for Green Valley (11-3-3).
Joey Lopez scored in the final six minutes for Valley (7-4-4).