No. 4 Catalina Foothills beat No. 5 Mingus Union 8-0 Tuesday night at home to send the Falcons to the semifinal round of the 4A playoffs where they will face No. 1 Prescott on Saturday afternoon. The game against Prescott will be played at 1 p.m., right after the other 4A semifinal match featuring No. 7 Salpointe and No. 3 Flagstaff. That first game starts at 11 a.m.

Salpointe knocked off No. 2 Arcadia 2-1 and Flagstaff beat No. 6 Sahuaro 5-4 in PKs after a 1-1 tie. Flagstaff lost to Catalina Foothills in the quarterfinal round last year, Arcadia beat Sahuaro in another quarterfinal match and then Salpointe got past Arcadia in the semifinal round before beating Catalina Foothills 2-1 in overtime to win the team’s third state championship in a row.

Most of the characters from last year are the same this year including Prescott. Salpointe beat Prescott in the quarterfinal round last year and the Badgers needed overtime to defeat No. 8 Walden Grove to set up the semifinal with Catalina Foothills on Saturday. Thunderbird earned the top seed last year but the Chiefs came in ranked No. 12 this year and then lost to Mingus in the first round.

Mingus keeper Zoey Arwine also competes in track and field, swimming and wrestling for the Marauders. Arwine won a section championship in wrestling in the 160-pound division and she took second in state on Saturday in Prescott Valley. Even better, this was her first year competing in wrestling.

Arwine had her hands full with the Falcon offense as she turned back 17 of the 34 attempts but seven shots found the net despite her efforts. At one point, Arwine prevented a “run-rule” by blocking a PK and then stuffing the ensuing rebound attempt. When she left the game with about 11 minutes left, the Catalina Foothills bench and coaching staff gave her an ovation.

The Falcons struggled to get past Arwine early until junior Caitlyn Maher left the ball in the middle for senior Hannah Draper to put away in the 22nd minute. Junior Ellie Robinson put the Falcons up 2-0 in the 24th and 3-0 only 36 seconds later. The rapid pace of scoring would return through the second half.

Freshman Uriah Burrell hit senior Dania Shabet on a corner and then Robinson picked up her hat trick one minute later to make it 5-0.

Robinson fed Draper a couple minutes later and then Draper picked up her hat trick one minute after that to make it 7-0. Finally, senior Emily Chinnock found fellow senior Sania Tuli in the middle for the 8-0 win in the with two minutes left.

Salpointe beat Flagstaff in the 2018 title game and Thunderbird in the 2017 title game.

The 4A state championship match this year is slated for Tuesday, Feb. 25 at Williams Field at 5 p.m.