Three-peat: Trojans boys soccer resilient in Section 2AA championship win over Mankato East

Oct. 18—NEW PRAGUE — The Worthington Trojans boys soccer team is headed to its third-straight state tournament after a victory in the Section 2AA championship game over Mankato East Tuesday night via penalty shootout.

The game was tied 1-1 after two 40 minute halves of soccer and two ten minute overtime periods. Worthington won the penalty shootout 3-1 with senior goalkeeper Kaleb Knothe making three blocks against four Cougar shots.

"I told my coaches and all my teammates before the game I said, 'Mankato East beat us in section finals for basketball. So this is my get back game,'" said Knothe. "I had to get (Mankato East) back for it and at halftime when we're down I told (my teammates), 'I don't want to go home yet guys. Let's bring it together and play how we play,' and we ended up pulling it through."

The Trojans trailed the Cougars around 79 minutes of the game. Mankato East scored its goal midway through the first half on a screaming shot off the crossbar which was decided to have bounced down all the way past the goal line and then back out into the field of play.

From that point on the Cougars stymied the Trojans, keeping players back to prevent many breakaway chances while generating strong counter attack offense through long balls past the midfield.

It was with just under a minute and a half that coach Juan Flores made the eleventh-hour decision to send into the box all but his keeper Knothe, defender Alex Galvez and free kick taker Jonathan Banegas for a final push to score and keep the Trojans' season alive.

After an initial appearance that the Cougars had successfully cleared the ball away from danger, the Trojans were able to regroup — ending with center back Maqui Sandoval connecting on a through pass to Banegas for an equalizing score with 1:06 remaining in regulation.

And after 20 minutes of tense play in overtime, the Trojans and Cougars were headed to a penalty shootout to determine the section champions.

"These kids just never gave up," Flores said. "They played through the nerves, put their heads down and it paid off, we got a shot there at the end."

"It really showed our resiliency and our ability not to give up — even though we were down pretty much the whole game," said Hugo Garcia, a captain and great center back for the Trojans. "It was really motivating to show that even when we're down most of the time we can still come back."

The Trojans, as the top team in the section, shot first and going to the six yard spot was Banegas. He had missed a penalty kick earlier in the first half of the game and was once again denied by a diving Owen Quist, the Cougars goalkeeper.

Quist made the uncommon appearance as the first shootout taker for the Cougars and his attempt at disrupting the timing of Knothe was foiled as the Worthington goalkeeper snuffed out the slow roller with a late kick after diving for the corner.

Worthington junior Carlos Castillo broke the deadlock in the subsequent attempt hitting the back of the net squarely before celebrating in the direction of the Worthington bench.

In the second Cougar attempt, Knothe diagnosed the direction of the ball and made a diving block to give the Trojans the advantage.

Maqui Sandoval powered his shot squarely into the net — shaking off any doubt after missing a handful of free kicks high towards the Cougars' goal during the match.

Mankato East made its first goal of the penalty shootout following Sandoval's blast.

But Charles Saydee, who sealed the shootout victory in the section semifinals over Mound Westonka last Thursday, missed his shot as it sailed well up into the uprights and returned a glimmer of hope to the Cougar faithful.

But solving Knothe once again proved a difficult task as he punched out a third Mankato East penalty take.

Going to the line with the ability to seal the Trojans' win was the senior Garcia. He was the lone WHS player of the five selected in the Mound Westonka game not needing to take a penalty after Worthington iced the game after four rounds.

"It was very nerve-wracking leading up to it. Especially as I didn't want it to make it to me like last time," said Garcia on his feelings leading up to the game winning shot. "But, when it got to me — I just knew I had to put it in the back. Then I heard everybody's cheers of my name and I just knew I had to do it and I stepped up."

Garcia said that in the practices leading up to the championship game he continued to practice his penalty kicks and when on the spot he simply decided to stick to the one he felt best about going in.

"I got to practice it yesterday and I was just going to put it in the same spot and that's where I put it," said Garcia. "I was assured that I had the confidence and that I was gonna be able to make it."

"I've always been terrified to play overtime penalty kicks," said a relieved Flores. "It was two times before when we lost in 2020 against Bloomington Kennedy at home in that section final and then we lost (in the state tournament) to Willmar. So I thought maybe the third time's a charm and we'll win one. We did practice penalty kicks last night, actually. Just in case to build confidence and we took care of it."

The victory sealed the Trojans third consecutive state tournament appearance.

For some on the team it is their third time to the tourney as WHS varsity soccer players, but for others like first-year player Knothe, they look forward to embracing the hard-to-get state bid.

"It's been a dream of mine in any sport to go to state," said Knothe.

The appearance will be the Trojans fifth in program history. But the they remain in pursuit of their first victory in a state tournament, and in order to be in contention to end the streak, Flores expects more urgency from his players throughout the game.

"It's always great to win a section final and punch a ticket to state — that's always a goal," said Flores. "But if we want to be able to play more than just one game at state — we're gonna have to play a lot better than this."

"There were times that we didn't play very well — we weren't as organized. But I think when it was crunch time, and it was time to step up. Our defense stepped up for us," added Flores. "I'm really happy for our team, it's always great to go back to state and this is the third time in a row. We're super happy, but we also got to be realistic and recognize that yes, we won, but it's probably not how we want to play if we want to play more matches in the next couple of weeks."

Worthington 0 1 (3) — 2

Mankato East 1 0 (1) — 1