East keeper Braulio Tafoya only touched the ball twice in Friday’s 5A showdown with Alta. Both touches were on penalty kicks, and he saved them both.
Despite Tafoya watching 100 minutes of regulation and overtime from the sidelines, the senior’s got a knack for stopping shots and was inserted for penalties after the game ended 1-1.
It was a great decision for East as he saved Alta’s first two shots with acrobatic diving saves.
Visiting Alta converted its third penalty but it never had a chance for a fourth as all four East shooters scored to help the Leopards remain undefeated with the victory, prevailing 4-1 in PKs.
“I just think he’s confident. He’s been around for a long time. He’s used to a lot of pressure and a lot of high-end games, and we’ve had penalty shootouts,” said East coach Javier Viana.
“He’s just confident. Sometimes that’s the difference, right, like ‘I think I can do it and I’m gonna go do it.’”
Jorge Beltran, Alejandro Preciado, Angel Mendoza and Luis Nevarez all converted their PKs for the East, which improved to 12-0 on the season.
Alta falls to 10-2, with both losses coming to East in the past week.
“At the end of the day, if you would’ve told me that we were going to bet Alta twice in one week with a team primarily made up of sophomores, I probably wouldn’t have been so sure, but incredible fight,” said Viana.
East has three keepers on its roster who’ve logged varsity minutes this year, but Viana believed Adi Helac’s superior height gave his team the best chance against Alta — particularly on set pieces.
After all, Helac started against Alta last week and earned the 2-0 shutout.
“The reason I made that call last Friday was because I was worried about size, particularly in corners. We’re small. They have very tall, very fantastic players, and I thought we need a keeper that has a big body. They usually put a player on the keeper, so that was one of my concerns,” said Viana.
Once the game got to penalties though, there was no question who Viana wanted in goal.
“He’s just a fantastic penalty stopper,” said Viana.
In regulation, East struck first in the 30th minute on Friday as Beltran received a pass from Manny Enriquez at the top of the box, immediately cutting it to his preferred right foot and ripping a shot just inside the post for the 1-0 lead.
He scored the winning goal against Alta in the previous matchup and now has 20 goals on the season.
Despite East’s bright start, Alta had the home side on its heels much of the second half as it controlled possession in the midfield. It started defensively as the Hawks did a great job high pressing Beltran and never letting him use his creativity to open up scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates.
But East’s defense has proven all year to be extremely difficult to break down, and Alta struggled to turn that possession into meaningful scoring chances much of the half.
When it did finally equalize, it was on a wonder goal. Alta’s Jack McAllister uncorked a dipping shot from 30 yards out that snuck just under the crossbar in the 60th minute to tie the game 1-1.
“It was a fantastic goal for Alta, incredible strike. Those goals, just have to tip your hat to those type of goals,” said Viana.
Alta had a great chance to win it in regulation with a 79th minute free kick at the edge of the penalty area, but East’s defense blocked the initial dangerous free kick and the equally dangerous rebound attempt.
Late in the second overtime, Alta was unlucky not to win it after sending an open-net shot over the crossbar which would’ve created a tie atop the Region 6 standings.
Instead, East is in the driver seat for the repeat region championship.
“There’s a lot to be learned from this game that we need to try to neutralize the physicality and size difference by playing more possession, and I think we weren’t able to do that as well in the second half. Credit to Alta,” said Viana.