Pueblo boys win 10th straight, advance to first championship match

Pueblo’s boys soccer team cruised to a comfortable victory on Wednesday night at Tucson High, punching a ticket to its first state championship match.

The second seeded Warriors beat No. 6 seed Glendale Prep 3-0 in the Division IV semifinals for their 10th straight victory.

Pueblo coach Francisco Urtuzuastegui said through a translator – senior defender Angel Cervantes – that he was very confident that Warriors would win, confident in his players is very proud of the team.

Pueblo (13-3 overall) will face fifth-seeded Buckeye in the Division IV state championship match on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. at Gilbert Williams Field. Buckeye (14-4) beat top seeded El Mirage Dysart in the semifinals.

The state championship appearance continues the recent renaissance for Pueblo’s athletics. This school year, the football team made its first playoff appearance in 25 years and last season the girls basketball team returned to the state tournament to end a dry spell that dated back to at least the early 1990s.

“I’m happy that we could be the first to win the state championship in soccer,” Urtuzuastegui said. “The community could see that we’re supporting them well as in how we’re playing.”

The Warriors were led by a first-half brace by freshman midfielder Helder Navarro, who opened up the scoring on Wednesday night with a goal in the 12th minute.

“I saw it as his opportunity and just kicked it in the right location,” Navarro said through a translator.

Navarro said he’s very excited because the Warriors are making history and could make even more in Saturday.

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Navarro struck again about 10 minutes later, when he scored off a header.

“The game opened up and we took the opportunities that we had,” Urtuzuastegui said.

Navarro said he took advantage of the chances he had when they came up.

“When I first started playing, I was nervous at first because I couldn’t get a bounce on the ball,” Navarro said. “As the game went on, he felt more confident and started controlling more.”

Then in the 72nd minute, sophomore forward Rafael Torres scored a dagger, slipping behind the defense to score.

Torres said he was surprised to win by such a margin because the Griffins beat Coolidge 8-0 to open the playoffs, while Pueblo beat Coolidge by one goal.

Pueblo outshot Glendale Prep 9-4.

Glendale Prep head coach David Rickey said if the Griffins would have scored on their early chances, like a free kick from 25 yards out, they could have sprung the upset.

“If we would have scored on that, I think we could have held them off for the remainder but they’re a really good team, especially when they’re up, because they’re a possession based team and we just ran out of steam towards the end,” Rickey said. “They’re a great team and we just didn’t do enough to win tonight.”