YUMA, AZ - The Cibola Raiders spent most of the regular season as the best team in the area, and it got them the No. 3 seed in the state tournament.
On Tuesday night, they proved that they can win in the postseason as well, beating No. 14 Pinnacle, 2-0, at Cibola High to advance to the quarterfinals of the 6A state playoffs in boys soccer.
Despite winning their fourth straight game and moving on to face No. 6 Hamilton on Saturday, Cibola head coach Bryan Claudio was far from satisfied.
“We did a OK," he said. "I mean, we didn’t play our game the whole way through.”
Claudio was referring to the possession of the ball in the first half being owned by Pinnacle.
“Not only were they dictating their own way but they were dictating what we were doing as well.”
Cibola striker Gabriel Claudio changed that, though, scoring the game's first goal early in the second half with Enrique Zamora adding another goal later off an assist from Claudio.
The game started like any other game Cibola had taken part in: intense. The Raiders had obtained a 10-1-1 record in the regular season whilst the Pinnacle Patriots stood with 8-3-2. The difference was that Pinnacle was dominating early rather than the Raiders.
Pinnacle clearly took control of the first half of the game. At minute 3:31 Pinnacle went towards the left side while Cibola defense was distracted and resulted in a blow to the left goalpost. The goalie for Cibola later got another blow to the right towards the end of the first half.
There were three yellow cards given in the game, two to Cibola and one for Pinnacle; all the cards were for verbal comments from the players. It was clearly not a friendly match in the second half due to the penalties the official called. Pinnacle’s coaches just sat down after the ball was inside of the net.
Cibola took advantage with Zamora scoring the second goal which pretty much locked their victory against Pinnacle.
“It’s going to be a great game, a fierce battle between two really good teams,” Bryan Claudio said.
They'll have another matchup with a "really good team" when Hamilton (9-2-1) comes to town. “It’s going to be about who wants it more,” Bryan Claudio said.
