AURORA | Vincent Tchoumba had searing pain in his left arm that brought him to his knees on a couple of occasions Wednesday night, but his legs and instincts worked perfectly for Cherokee Trail.
The sophomore striker, bandaged up as he felt the lingering effects of a full speed fall onto the track surrounding the field at Legacy Stadium late in regulation, pressured Valor Christian’s goalie into a turnover and scored an open net goal in overtime to deliver a 1-0 victory for the 14th-seeded Cougars over the 19th-seeded Eagles in the first round of the Class 5A boys soccer state playoffs.
Tchoumba’s seventh goal of the season was his biggest — other than one against massive rival Grandview in Centennial League play — and it put coach Mark Hill’s Cherokee Trail team into the second round of the 5A playoffs for a third straight season.
“I was hurting and I wanted to score,” Tchoumba said. “I saw the goalie and he just got the ball, so I just sprinted as far as I could to get him off balance and I got the ball. He was a little panicked and tried to dive and grab my legs a little bit, but he couldn’t stop it.
“I was so scared. I’ve seen all those videos of people kicking the ball over the open goal and I thought ‘am I going to do that?’ So I just dribbled to the line and shot it in.”
The Cougars (10-3-3) will play on the road in Colorado Springs at third-seeded and undefeated Rampart Oct. 31 in a rematch of a second round contest played last season won by Cherokee Trail. The Rams defeated another Aurora team, 30th-seeded Vista PEAK Prep, 3-1 in the opening round.
Cherokee Trail lost to Valor Christian (7-6-3) by a goal in a regular season meeting Sept. 6 and the contest appeared to be tipping a bit towards the Eagles in the late stages of regulation and early overtime.
But the Cougars began to push back and after a good strike from junior Peter Eugenio was saved by Valor Christian keeper Jacob Shultz, Tchoumba came up with his big play when a Valor Christian defender played the ball back on the ground to Shultz, who flubbed the ball as Tchoumba arrived.
Shultz (who made four saves in the game) went to the ground and tried to grab the loose ball, but Tchoumba controlled it into the clear, let it roll towards the goal line and then eased it into the net from point blank range before he was mobbed on the sideline by his teammates.
“We lost to them before 2-1, so I think everyone was a little worried, especially when they were down in our end so much,” Tchoumba said. “But this is a big confidence boost with everything that comes after.”
Full results from the opening round of the 5A boys soccer state playoffs — which saw Aurora Central and Regis Jesuit also prevail among Aurora teams in action — can be found here.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023 CLASS 5A BOYS SOCCER PLAYOFFS (FIRST ROUND)
Oct. 25 at Legacy Stadium
(14) CHEROKEE TRAIL 1, (19) VALOR CHRISTIAN 0 (OT)
Score by halves:
Valor Christian 0 0 0 — 0
Cherokee Trail 0 0 1 — 1
SCORING
Overtime
Cherokee Trail — Vincent Tchoumba, 94th minute
