Campo Verde boys soccer team remained unbeaten Saturday and administered a painful end to 5A quarterfinal opponent Goldwater's season in the process.

No. 1 seed Campo Verde scored with 17 seconds left in the first half and tacked on its third goal at 36:57 of  the second half in eliminating No. 8 seed Goldwater, 3-1, at Campo Verde High School. Campo Verde faces No. 4 seed Ironwood, a 4-0 winner over No. 5 seed Sunnyslope in the semis on Thursday (Feb. 9) at 5 p.m. at Campo Verde High.

Campo Verde ran its perfect record to 24-0 getting goals from Johnny Halter (15th of the season), Kamrin Shafer (2nd) and Blaise Hale (10th). The goals were were tallied in a 10-minute span (34th minute to 44th minute). The boys game began two hours (4 p.m) after the start time of most other 6A and 5A boys quarters (2 p.m.) Goldwater, which regisitered a 5-2 win in the first round over Arcadia, closed the season 12-6.

The victory made the day palatable for Campo Verde coach Drew Guarneri. who saw his boys team reach the semifinal round for the first time in school history.

Guarneri, who also coaches the girls team, journeyed back to Campo about an hour or so before the boys game still digesting the girls' 2-1 loss to Ironwood Ridge that ended about 12:45. Campo's girls gave up the winning goal  (a penalty kick) with two minutes left playing a player down due to a double-yellow card earlier in the contest. 

"We're over that quarterfinal hump," Guarneri said. "We kept picking up energy as the game went on. It was nice to get a goal a few minutes before halftime. Then getting another one in the last minute, that was big. I think that deflated them some. Us getting a the third goal three minutes rinto the second half really made it tough for them. You could see their heads go down after that."

Campo Verde enjoyed an overall edge in the first half without a goal. The Coyotes had several chances, atlhough perhaps one was a clean opportunity. Halter's goal in the 34th minute made it 1-0 off a corner kick from Justin Wakefield from about 15 yards out. The goal in the final seconds of the half came off a corner ffrom Alec Carroll as Shafer's header squeezed inside the far post right at the goal mouth.

The demoralizer was the third one in the 44th minute. Halter had a touch in the box that caromed Hale's way and Hale  poked at with his left foot with his back to the goal. It went in.

"That was an ugly goal and a pretty one at the same time," Guarneri said with a smile. 

Goldwater didn't muster much of an attack in the second half, but did manage to tally on a goal by Andrew McCombs in the 78th minute with  Campo reserves for the most part finishing out the contest.