DENVER | Down by a goal at halftime of the Class 2A semifinals, the Lotus School for Excellence boys soccer team flipped an emotional switch Saturday morning.
Seeded sixth in the 16-team 2A postseason, the Meteors earned a second chance to win the state championship that eluded them last season when they dug in and rallied from a goal deficit to upset No. 2 Bishop Machebeuf 2-1 at All-City Stadium.
Coach Bennett Pang’s Lotus team got second half goals from junior Biruk Astatike and senior Abeneazer Getachew and survived some close calls from the Buffaloes in the closing minutes to earn a spot in the 2A state title game at 9 a.m. Nov. 12 at Switchbacks Weidner Field in Colorado Springs.
The Meteors (14-4) had the possibility of a rematch with the Crested Butte team they lost to in last season’s final, but instead will face off with top-seeded Vail Mountain (13-4-1), which topped Crested Butte 5-3 in the other semifinal.
Lotus pushed early to take the lead, only to end up down a goal less than five minutes into the game when Bishop Machebeuf (16-2) — which came in on a 15-game winning streak and averaged nearly seven goals a game in the regular season and its first two playoff games — scored on a quick counter.
The game remained that way into the break and for the first 10-plus minutes of the second half, though the Meteors clearly had upped their level of intensity.
They got the fortune they needed in the 53rd minute, when Astatike came up with a great individual effort when he beat a defender 1-on-1 on the right wing and struck a ball at Bishop Machebeuf keeper Edward Trujillo, who got two hands on it, but it spun off them and between his legs in the goal to tie the game at 1-1.
Energized, the Meteors — whose attack includes junior midfielder Fredy Peraza, whose 38 goals rank second in 2A — kept pushing and scored again exactly nine minutes later.
Lotus got the ball in close with a lot of traffic in front of Trujillo when the ball came out to Getachew, who hit a rocket that glanced off the goalpost and redirected into the back of the net to break the tie.
Senior keeper Fernando Alcantar-Barajas will return to the nets in the state championship game for a second straight season after he and his defense kept Bishop Machebeuf’s prolific offense off the scoreboard for the last 76-plus minutes.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
