4A SOCCER: Freshman Garcia's final kick seals repeat title for Kone, Eagles


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SANDY — When Skyline forward Hunter Kone felt the pressure of trying to lead the Eagles to a second consecutive state championship in his senior season, he thought of his mother.

After losing her to cancer last year, Kone dedicated Skyline’s title run to her memory.

On Thursday night, he made an addendum to the dedication at Rio Tinto Stadium.

Kone was one of five Eagles to convert a penalty shot, and freshman Andrew Garcia’s final kick sealed a 5-4 shootout victory for the Eagles’ second consecutive 4A state championship.

“I dedicated last year to her,” Kone said after mobbing his teammates in celebration. “I won it for her.”

Brigham Jackson, Austin Kennedy and Luke Roberts also converted from the spot for Skyline before the freshman Garcia stepped up with the chance to win it after seven rounds of penalties.

Was the first-year starting defender nervous? Of course he was.

“There are a lot of people over there,” Garcia remembered thinking, motioning to the student section in the northwest corner of the stadium. “I just kept thinking about the seniors. I couldn’t miss for the seniors.”

Garcia, too, is no ordinary freshman. His coach had loads of confidence in him and the rest of his shooters, as evidenced by keeping the 15-year-old on the field through 100 minutes for Skyline (13-6-1).

Skyline's Andrew Garcia celebrates scoring the winning goal against East during the Class 4A state championship game in Sandy on Thursday, May 21, 2015. Skyline won in overtime. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)
Skyline's Andrew Garcia celebrates scoring the winning goal against East during the Class 4A state championship game in Sandy on Thursday, May 21, 2015. Skyline won in overtime. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News)

“We’ve been practicing PKs for three weeks,” Skyline coach Shawn Kennedy said. “We felt really confident in all our kickers. We got a miss and save, too, and we’ve got all the confidence in our goalie. Will is an outstanding PK blocker. He took a beautiful block in the semifinal game.

“I think the whole team had a lot of confidence going into PKs. Having the freshman step up after the first five, though — that was awesome.”

Both teams finished level after the first five penalty shooters, with Skyline goalkeeper Will DeSantis making a stop on the second kick and East counterpart Jack Thompson following suit with a stellar block to send the shootout to extra kickers.

“I just dove the right way; that’s all I can say,” DeSantis said. “I got my body in front of it.

“(Winning) was good the first time. But I couldn’t be more excited this time.”

But as Juan Figueroa, East’s seventh penalty shooter, stepped to the spot, DeSantis had a feeling. He dived to his left, came off his line briefly, and made a low save to keep the ball out of the back of the net and set up Garcia’s heroics.

Daniel Rhondeau gave East (15-4-1) the first lead of the match just 13 minutes in, lifting a ball from near the left end line and sneaking it past DeSantis as the Leopards took a 1-0 advantage into halftime.

“East came out to a quick lead, and we were on our heels,” coach Kennedy said. “We recovered in the second half, and I thought we played our kind of ball and settled things down.”

But the Eagles came out of the break flying. Skyline lobbed eight shots up the field in the second half, and Kone nearly equalized just five minutes into the half — before his on-rushing shot that caromed off a defender was ruled offside.

Kone wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. The senior forward ran onto a ball from the right side of the field in the 63rd minute, gave it a touch, and watched it bounce off the East defense and inside the far post as Skyline took a 1-1 tie into the final 15 minutes of the match.

“We started in the back and were working hard, and finally got the tying goal,” Kone said. “Then we just worked hard to get to PKs, and we practice them a lot.”

Skyline had back-to-back corner kicks just a minute before the equalizer as it searched for a goal, but nothing broke through until Kone’s on-rusher with 17 minutes left despite playing a large portion of the game in its offensive half.

Then East nearly won it with three minutes remaining in regulation. Matt Barker squared a shot from the top of the box and lofted it on target, forcing DeSantis to make a diving save to keep the match level.

“Going into the shootout, we felt good because of how much we practiced PKs,” Kone said. “We felt pretty calm. We missed a few, but that happens to the best of players.”

Both teams gutted through both 10-minute, golden-goal extra periods with sore legs and stiff muscles, with as many as seven players cramping at one time. Skyline had a chance to win it in the closing seconds, when Jackson took on three East defenders and buried a ball in the back of the net with eight seconds to play.

But his goal was ruled offside, the third such call against the Eagles.

Victory would come from the penalty spot.

“It’s almost miraculous to have a repeat, especially in soccer with the quality there is in Utah now. It’s incredible. I also got to see my son twice on the sideline, and he was one of our PK kickers who made it.

“I can’t even describe this. I’ll be able to sleep tonight,” Kennedy said. “I haven’t been able to for the last couple of nights. The boys have worked hard, and to come out and finish this way, they’ve played for each other, and it’s been awesome.”

Kone, one of 14 seniors on the team, said the pressure to repeat as champions weighed pretty heavily on the Eagle seniors as they ran through the regular season en route to a Region 7 championship and a top seed in the state playoffs.

“We definitely felt the pressure, especially when we went down one,” Kone said. “We felt it going into halftime. But we came out working hard, pressured and got that goal, and we knew we could take them after that.”

Contributing: Ben Schroeder

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