Ciaran Doyle is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Chaparral for AZPreps365.com

 

SCOTTSDALE- Chaparral ended its boys soccer regular season in style, thrashing the Liberty Lions 8-1 on senior night. Two goals from captain Aysa Hamid and two from senior Kane Reese helped the Firebirds secure a comfortable victory on Monday night.

Chaparral coach Jason Speirs was impressed with his team's performance despite missing countless first-half chances that should have put the game away.

"I think we hit the post four times," Speirs said. "It could have been a different score but I'm pretty pleased overall. We kept going and going, I couldn't really ask for more than that."

Just six minutes into the match, Chaparral drew first blood. Senior striker Aysa Hamid picked the ball up on the left-hand side, beat a few players inside, opened his body up, and curled a beautiful shot around the keeper's far post.

"I saw the defender leveraging outside a little bit so I thought I could drop the shoulder, cut inside, hit it, and see what happens," Aysa said. "Fortunately, it went my way and the ball went in."

Senior Aysa Hamid cuts inside and scores to make it 1-0 (Ciaran Doyle/ AZPreps365)

The rest of the half was dominated by Chaparral, as Liberty was scrambling to hold on defensively. Chaparral was doing a great job advancing the ball up to its striker's feet from defense quickly, which led to many scoring opportunities. 

In the 11th minute Chaparral would hit the woodwork for the first time off a corner, which was eventually bundled over the line by sophomore Jake Breitegan to make it 2-0. In the next handful of minutes, both Aysa Hamid and Aidan Zeitler squandered terrific opportunities to further the Firebirds' advantage. 

The highlight of the night for the Liberty Lions came in the 15th minute. Chaparral lazily gave away possession with a bad pass in its half, and the Lions were able to capitalize through a goal from Jeramiah Crain. 

After Liberty cut the lead down to 2-1, Chaparral kicked into another gear. Senior Aysa Hamid hit the woodwork for the first time of the night after barely missing a free kick from 30 yards out. The free kick skimmed the top of the crossbar and skipped over, inching so close that some Chaparral fans actually thought it landed in goal.

Just two minutes later, Hamid hit the crossbar again to the absolute disbelief of the crowd. This was set up via a fantastic cross-field pass from senior Jonah Ichilov, who hit the pass right into the stride of Hamid, who dinked it over the keeper only to see it hit the crossbar once again. Hamid could have had five goals on Monday night if it wasn't for the woodwork.

"Crossbar, post. I hit everything today," Aysa said. "A little unlucky but I'm happy with the win. 8-1. Can't really get any better than that."

Senior Kane Reese scored two goals in five minutes before the half. The first one was one of the goals of the night as Reese headed a beauty across his body to make it 3-1. Then five minutes later, he put his leg onto the end of a cross to increase the Firebirds lead to 4-1 at the half.

Although it had fewer chances in the second half, Chaparral kept possession of the ball well and kept Liberty pinned back deep in their half of the pitch. Two minutes into the half the Firebirds scored once again to make it 5-1, this time through a Blake Bernal goal after a delightful pass from Drew Friedland. 

The rest of the game was dominated by Chaparral, with the final three goals coming from Nico Guiterrez, Aysa Hamid, and Levi Crichton. Crichton's goal was the pick of the bunch, as he finished a terrific solo score with an amazing top corner finish from a tight angle.

Chaparral now turns its attention to the postseason, with high hopes of being able to make a deep run. Coach Speirs likes his squad's chances, although he knows the Firebirds will face extremely tough competition.

"This is probably one of the strongest groups of high school teams going into the postseason. These top ten teams are real good," Speirs said." I think if we get hot, get on a roll, who knows what could happen after that."