A medical and college student directed the Desert Vista girls to a title.

As for the Pinnacle boys, they officially stamped themselves as Open Division contenders.

Both programs concluded the first half of their seasons with championship victories in the biggest regular season soccer event, the Holiday Extravaganza Tournaments. Desert Vista and Pinnacle began their New Year’s Day celebrations a little early after defeating the favorites Monday at Arizona Athletic Grounds in east Mesa.

After a scoreless 80 minutes, Desert Vista goalkeeper Cali Winstead blocked two penalty kick attempts to help capture a 4-3 shootout win over Chaparral. The Sunnyside Blue Devils are an offensive force, but Pinnacle showed that it too carries some firepower in its 4-3 triumph in regulation.

Desert Vista took the field without its head coach, Jack Soutar, who was on a planned holiday trip. But his assistants, Grand Canyon student Emma Green and med student Courtney Lohmeier, proved their worth and made sure to call Soutar while their team was celebrating.

Defeating Chaparral for the first time in three tries this season was a tall order. Chaparral had plenty of opportunities to score, but Desert Vista’s bend-but-don’t-break defense held on.

“After playing them twice we know that they are super dangerous on set pieces, and they have a lot of size,” Lohmeier said. “So that was something that, one, we wanted to minimize, and two, that we had to be really solid defensively on those set pieces.”

In the shootout, Winstead blocked the first penalty kick that was taken.

The sophomore missed her shootout attempt but regrouped immediately, blocking the ensuing PK. Sophomore defender Landri Midkiff sealed the 4-3 shootout victory with her conversion.

Eliana Abarca, Londyn Garvin and the skilled Piper Garvin also delivered in the shootout for Desert Vista.

“I think the girls were just really fired up to play (Chaparral), because they had lost previously,” said Green, a former Desert Vista player. “So they used that as motivation. They didn’t want to lose a third time, and they just battled the whole game.”

In the Holiday Extravaganza finale for boys, Sunnyside held the possession advantage early.

But Bryce Smith and his boys then snatched the momentum away from the Blue Devils in the first half. A looping header off a free kick and chip over the goalkeeper by Smith secured a 2-0 lead for Pinnacle.

But shutting down Sunnyside is no easy task. The Tucson squad closed the first half with a penalty conversion by Adrian Gutierrez and goal by Dieggo Resendiz, tying the match at 2-2.

 

 

In the second half, Pinnacle made some adjustments that allowed it to keep pace with Sunnyside and leaned on Smith to spark its offense once again. In the 48th minute, a failed Sunnyside clearance led to two Smith shots.

The second one, off a rebound, found its mark from close distance, giving the senior a hat trick.

“The performance today, we knew that’s what we are capable of,” Smith said. “We were just waiting for people to know this, and if they don’t know this, we’ll show them.”

A nifty pass by Smith near the halfway line also set up Sean Ribadeneira, who beat Sunnyside’s goalkeeper and a defender in the 64th minute, for their team’s final goal.

Sunnyside’s Johan Jimenez’s low far post scoring shot in the 69th minute pumped some energy into his team. But Pinnacle defender Jaycob Humbel, his back line and goalkeeper Brayden Renke made sure nothing else got through.

“We just have to stay composed and just keep working,” six-year Pinnacle coach Justin Hughes said. “We have a lot of work to do. We made a lot of mistakes today that we have to clean up.”