It didn’t feel like a ho-hum high school soccer match in late March. No. 3 West Hall certainly celebrated like it meant much more.
The Spartans got overtime goals from Alejandro Romero and Simon Cobian and knocked off No. 1 Dawson County, 4-2, Tuesday in a Region 7-AAA showdown between a pair of state championship contenders.
Cobian scored a minute into the first overtime period, one-timing home his second goal of the night, off a slick left-to-right cross from Ramsis Martinez that put West Hall up 3-2. Romero finished off the top-ranked Tigers in overtime, netting the clincher off a misplay by Dawson County keeper Ty Anglin with 1:35 left.
It was big win, requiring an exhausting effort. Defender Sammy Coto was so cramped up, he had to be carried over to the postgame celebration, which featured a raucous “We believe that we just won” chant.
“They’ve had our number for a several years,” West Hall coach Tim Gale said. “We’ve always come up on the short end. It’s good to come out on top.”
Richie Castruita opened the scoring, beating Anglin on the short side 10 minutes into the game. Dawson County answered with Sal Mendoza’s header with two minutes to go before half. Credit Josh Sage with the assist on a bending free kick from 25 yards out that found Mendoza at the back post to send the game to halftime tied 1-1.
Three minutes into the second half, Cobian gave West Hall the lead back. He capitalized on a sloppy defensive clear by Dawson County and scored from point-blank range.
The Tigers again responded, this time in highlight-reel fashion. Senior Brandon Lund made a left-to-right run, battling two Spartan defenders. Lund beautifully split the defenders, got to his right foot and buried the tying goal that eventually forced overtime.
For Dawson County, it’s a major disappointment for a team that’s still trying to adjust to the loss of top playmaker Alan Sanchez, who’s out for the season with an injury.
“We haven’t recovered from losing him,” Dawson County coach Jed Lacey said. “We got away from what we do and started feeling sorry for ourselves when we fell behind. We’ve got to learn from adversity. But we will. We’ll be fine. We’ll feed of this.”
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