AURORA | Senior Night for the Gateway boys soccer team provided much more than just reflection on the past Thursday afternoon.
On the day the team honored a large group of seniors in front of good-sized gathering of family and friends, the Olys met Skyview in a clash of teams that occupied the top two spots in the Colorado League standings as the regular season winds down.
The visiting Wolves had yet to suffer a league defeat and took the lead with an opening half goal, which cranked up the intensity with which Gateway played the second half. Coach Rene Ixta’s team struck back with two goals from sophomore Miguel Roa — the second coming in the final minute-plus — for an exciting 2-1 victory.
The victory lifted Gateway (7-5-1 overall) into the top spot in the Colorado League standings at 5-1 with two games to play. One of those is a rematch with Skyview (4-5-1, 3-1), which is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 21 on the Wolverines’ home field.
Ixta was pleased to see how his Gateway team recovered from a mental lapse in the opening half that allowed Skyline to take the lead.
The Wolverines pressed hard to extend their lead, but the Olys countered on multiple occasions and finally got the equalizer in the early stages of the second half. Gateway pressure created a penalty kick when a Skyview defender was called for a handball and Roa — a late call-up from junior varsity — drilled a shot off the hands of the Wolverines’ keeper and into the net.
The Olys fed the ball forward on several instances to speedy senior Diego Ruiz and it nearly paid off when Ruiz made a touch around the keeper, but missed wide as he shot at an open net on the run.
Ruiz was lost to injury a few minutes later on a slide tackle, but Roa took over the role of pushing the pace. He made it count in the late stages of regulation when he ran onto a ball and drilled a shot from outside the top of the goal box inside the far post to give Gateway the lead.
Following a massive celebration, the Olys staved off Skyline’s attempt to score until the final whistled sounded on the key victory.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
Gateway 2, Skyview 1
Score by halves:
Skyview 1 0 — 1
Gateway 0 2 — 2
Gateway goals: Miguel Roa 2
