'Stangs move on in 4A bracket
Second-half goals by Guetz and Zinis lift Mullen to a 5-3 home victory over The Classical Academy in 4A's 1st round.
They may as well have been playing in Scotland during its rainy season. Cloudy. Dark, A little windy. Lots of rain.
No matter. Mullen head coach Matt Degitis called the conditions “beautiful;” and why not? His Mustangs overcame the annoying conditions as well as The Classical Academy 5-3 in the first round of the Class 4A playoffs.
The Mustangs, now 10-5-1 and the No. 8 seed, moved to Saturday’s second round and will continue to host – they await No. 9 Durango, a 4-0 winner over No. 24 –Palisade.
“I loved every second of it,” Degitis said. “It was fun, I thought we dug deep, I thought we found ourselves and we kept pushing the game.”
Mullen had to – TCA, the No. 25 seed that ended 10-6, tied it at 3 early in the second half before the Mustangs took over play.
First, Riley Guetz nailed a missile from straight-away, 30 yards to take the lead at 4-3, then Stella Zinis, who got a second attempt after a referee was dealing with fans yelling from the sideline, unloaded again from beyond midfield and made it 5-3 on a long, one-bouncer that was textbook on a direct free kick.
“We had been dominating in the half for a while, so this seemed like an opportunity for this shot and I had one last game,” Guetz said of her game-winner.
Zinis, a junior outside back, said of her shot that shocked just about everyone on the field: “I didn’t even see it go in and then everyone started running. I got lucky,”
Degitis, thrilled with the shot as well as the two-goal margin, said “I was joking with my goalie coach and I don’t even think he would have saved it.”
Mullen built its 3-2 halftime lead on the strength of two goals by Kate Vezzani and one by Ella Grace.
Balanced scoring has gotten Mullen this far and it hopes it continues.
Moving on is their theme.
“I’m ecstatic,” Guetz said.
MULLEN 5, THE CLASSICAL ACADEMY 3
TCA 2 1 -- 3
Mullen 3 2 -- 5
Mullen goals – Kate Vezzani 2, Ella Grace, Riley Guetz, Stella Zinis.
Mullen assists – Steffi Thomas, Keelee Rakowski, Stella Zinis, Mattea Parsons.
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