Red Mountain brought home double the amount of hardware on Saturday, as immediately following a girls championship win in the Dobson Mustang Classic at Dobson High School, the boys beat Phoenix Camelback, 2-1, for their own championship.
The Lions (7-2) were without coach Anthony Presnell for the final two games of the tournament (personal reasons), but assistant Cody Wolfe was able to guide Red Mountain to a near-shutout win.
Matt Nichols scored the games first goal in the eighth minute on a rebound off a shot by Max Duran. Duran's shot bounced off the Camelback goalkeeper and Nichols was in the right place at the right time.
In the 64th minute, Chris Wascher scored what turned out to be the winning goal for a 2-0 Red Mountain lead.
"I told the guys at halftime that Camelback was down (1-0) and they were going to come out hard," Wolfe said. "They play possession style soccer and I told the midfield to settle down and not chase them around in circles. We played great in the second half and that second goal turned out to be huge."
That's because Camelback came out very aggressive in the second half with that 1-0 deficit, and the Spartans played a majority of the second half at their end with numerous shots on goal.
But the Lions played great defense all day long, until Juan Omar Apale scored on a header for the Spartans with six seconds left.
"It was a long week for us, but our boys gave it everything they had," Camelback coach Earl Charles said. "They knew that every game they had to play better than the last game. But we just ran out of gas and couldn't keep this momentum going."
Camelback had a couple of long shots that nearly connected but the Spartans were never able to find the net when it mattered.
Red Mountain, did, and the Lions hope this is the next step in a progression that will lead them back to a deep state tournament run, reminiscent of the state runners-up squad in 2008.
"It's been three or four years since we have been to state (championship match)," Wolfe said. "That was probably the last time we had an accomplishment like this. It's nice to win something like this."
