Brophy 1
Gilbert 0

By Alex Stanley ’12
THE ROUNDUP

The No. 6 ranked Broncos soccer team racked up another playoff win Saturday, Feb. 4, this time in an overtime thriller against the Gilbert High School Tigers.

Riggs Lennon ’13 scored the winning goal in an otherwise defensive game played at Gilbert High School.

“It was a full team effort, once again,” said soccer coach Mr. Marc Kelly ’87.

“In several games this year we’ve had a one man effort, but in the last few games, we’ve really been coming together, and it’s great. That is what you need at the end of the tournament,” he added.

Throughout the game, both defenses held firm and offered very few chances on goal.

Clarence Clark ’13 and Nate Sundermeier ’12 managed to save the game several times for the Broncos—Clark with his speedy defensive work and Sundermeier in keeping a reliable set of hands in goal.

On the attacking side of the field, scoring opportunities did not abound for either side in particular.

Some standout breaks on goal were Ryan Grotjohn ’13 hitting a header off of the crossbar and Lennon making the opposing goalie scramble with a powerful volley, but much of the offensive focus was long shot after long shot, which held to no avail for the Broncos.

Also, Gilbert had some dangerous counter attacks of their own. Nonetheless, Sundermeier and the outside netting stopped all shots coming at the Broncos’ goal.

Brophy play started to decline in the second half, as the ball seemed to be slinging from one side of the midfield to the other, with no team really taking hold of it.

Overtime, consisting of a pair of 10 minute halves, proved to be a different story.

Brophy took hold of the game, and the offense started to mesh.

Eventually, a Chad Ahrensdorf ’12 throw-in proved too hard for the Tigers to clear out of the goal box, and Lennon’s right foot slotted it into the upper-right hand corner of the goal.

For the rest of the game, the Broncos pulled back to their half, and saw out the rest of the game by booming the ball away from the goal.

In the end, Kelly pointed to just “a small edge” that helped the Broncos move past Gilbert.

Their next opponent is No. 10 ranked Tolleson, at Campo Verde High School at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 8, according to the AIA website.