AURORA | Oblivious to a soaking rain, Aurora Central boys soccer players lay prone all over the soggy turf at Aurora Public Schools Stadium Wednesday night.
Time had just expired on the Trojans’ best season on the pitch in a long time, one that saw them make it into the second round of the Class 5A state playoffs for the first time since 2005.
And the chance to advance even further had been there, but 12th-seeded Aurora Central instead saw No. 28 Mountain Vista strike for the go-ahead goal with just 5 minutes, 9 seconds remaining and hold on for a 2-1 victory.
Junior Jesus Dorado scored for Aurora Central on a penalty kick and coach Ken Wu’s squad pushed hard to take the lead during a frantic period of end-to-end action in the second half before Mountain Vista — which knocked off No. 5 Monarch by the same score in the opening round — stole the spot in the quarterfinals against No. 4 Arapahoe, which beat No. 13 Rampart in a shootout.
“We’re proud of it, we haven’t been in the second round of the playoffs since 2005, so this is big,” Dorado said. “We had a good run and we gave it our best.”
Indeed Aurora Central won the East Metro Athletic Conference championship and was the only Aurora team to reach double-digit wins in 2015 with a final record of 13-2-1. The Trojans also snapped the program’s five-game losing streak in the opening round of the state playoffs that stretched back to a quarterfinal appearance in 2005.
The combination of senior Brent Lackey and junior Chase Pacheco proved to be the difference for Mountain Vista (10-6-1), as the dangerous midfielders combined for the goal and assist on both goals.
In the 16th minute, Lackey — wearing a plastic bag over a cast on his right arm — ripped a low shot into the corner of the Aurora Central net on a feed from Pacheco to cap a long string of early Mountain Vista pressure with a goal.
The lead lasted less than three minutes before the Trojans began to show the aggressiveness that’s been the trademark of their season.
Senior Raul Martin Del Campo’s blast hit a Mountain Vista defender’s arm in front of the goal, resulting in a penalty kick opportunity taken by Dorado, who had the only goal for Aurora Central in its 1-0 first round win over Regis Jesuit.
Dorado calmly beat Golden Eagles’ keeper Christopher Reicher to tie the game.
“I’m just in the moment, I don’t know where I’m going to hit it until I’m running up,” Dorado said of his effective PK approach.
The game remained deadlocked the rest of the half, though Mountain Vista had a goal waved off by an offside call and Aurora Central nearly converted on a corner kick by Brian Correa in the closing seconds.
As the rain picked up in intensity in the second half, so did the action.
The Trojans had a couple of early chances to break the tie when senior David Guerrero’s header off another dangerous corner kick from Correa hit the top of the crossbar and junior Alexis Zavala’s long shot with Reicher way out of the goal rolled just wide.
Aurora Central got outstanding play in goal to ward off another Mountain Vista flurry and two long shots by Trojans’ senior Cristhian Reyes caused Reicher some problems with a wet ball and slick surface. Correa also hit a low laser that Reicher turned aside with a dive with 20 minutes remaining.
With the Trojans looking to attack, Mountain Vista took advantage of having numbers back as Lackey’s pass from the wing found Pacheco in front for the go-ahead goal.
“We lost possession and got caught in transition,” Wu said of the deciding goal.
In desperation mode, the Trojans never got a shot on net the rest of the way and the Golden Eagles delayed as much as they could until the final buzzer.
Aurora Central returns about half of a team that suffered just one other loss this season, a 3-0 defeat on Sept. 21 against Longmont, a 15-1-1 team that is currently in the Class 4A quarterfinals.
“We have some key positions that we’ll need to fill, but we should be good,” Wu said.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
(28) MOUNTAIN VISTA 2, (12) AURORA CENTRAL 1
Score by halves:
Mtn. Vista 1 1 — 2
Aur. Central 1 0 — 1
SCORING
First half
Mountain Vista — Brent Lackey (Chase Pacheco), 16th minute
Aurora Central — Jesus Dorado (penalty kick), 19th minute
Second half
Mountain Vista — Pacheco (Lackey), 74th minute
Fouls — Mountain Vista 4, Aurora Central 11. Corner kicks — Mountain Vista 8, Aurora Central 4. Yellow cards — Aurora Central: Ricardo Moreno, Samuel Owusu.
