Arbor View boys soccer forward Desmond Guevara showcased his scoring skills within the first few minutes of a Class 5A Southern Region semifinal against Western, scoring a pair of goals to give the Aggies an early lead.
The Arbor View senior wasn’t done scoring, but he also displayed his passing skills to help the Aggies punch their ticket to the state tournament.
Guevara dished out a pair of assists early in the second half, and finished with a hat trick to lead Arbor View, the Mountain League’s No. 2 seed, to a 6-2 home win over Western, the Mountain League’s No. 4 seed, Wednesday night.
“Since freshman year, we’ve been working towards this goal and now I’m a senior, so it’s my job to lead us,” Guevara said. It feels good to accomplish the goal I’ve been wanting since freshman year, and I feel like this is the team to do it.”
Arbor View (13-8-3) will play at Mountain League champion and No. 1 seeded Palo Verde at noon Saturday for the 5A Southern Region title and seeding for the state tournament. Palo Verde defeated Canyon Springs (9-9-2), the Mountain League’s No. 3 seed, 3-1 in the other region semifinal Wednesday night.
Both Arbor View and Palo Verde have (16-4-3) qualified for the 5A state tournament, which is Nov. 6-7 at Faith Lutheran.
It’s the second time Arbor View has reached a boys soccer state semifinal. The Aggies were a state semifinalist in 2021 in 4A, a Southern-only classification.
“It’s great,” Arbor View coach Robert Starbird said. “I knew this group could do it. This is a great group. A lot of them started on the JV team together and we just built it up together and it’s just fun.”
Guevara’s two early goals were nearly identical within the first five minutes of the game. On both goals, Guevara got a pass through the Western defense and carried the ball to his left, then kicked the ball to his right past the Western goalie to give the Aggies a 2-0 lead.
“I’m always open on the runs, I was quicker, so when I made it, luckily my teammates gave me the ball and I was able to slot them away,” Guevara said. “It was huge (to get two early goals) We came into this game with a loss and tie to Western, so to start off 2-0, it felt great.”
Western (5-11-3) quickly answered on a Calvin Kilpatrick goal, and the score stayed at 2-1 all the way to halftime. But after the break, Guevara helped the Aggies extend their lead.
Twice, Guevara worked the ball from the right side of the field and found open teammates in front of the game. Guevara’s first assist went to Robert Starbird Jr. and Gavin Garris to give the Aggies led 4-1. Frank Grieco and Guevara both scored later in the second half.
“We scored a lot of goals,” Starbird said. “We’ve been struggling scoring lately, but we found it today. We’ve been doing good defensively and just not really finding goals lately, but we found them tonight. It was a perfect time to find them.”
Western had a stunning 4-0 win over three-time defending state champion Coronado in the state quarterfinals, and Arbor View was coming off a shootout win against Eldorado on Monday. Starbird said the home-field advantage was key to help Arbor View take an early lead and blow the game open in the second half.
“We put ourselves in a good spot, getting the home-field advantage taking the No. 2 seed and then (Western) beat Coronado, so we got to host the game,” Starbird said. “The home crowd really helps this team. I wasn’t really sure how (this game) was going to go because that took a lot out of us the other night … I wasn’t sure how this was going to go, but we came out cal and played really well tonight.”
Palo Verde rallies to final
Palo Verde coach Scott Hunt said his team didn’t play well in the first half, as Canyon Springs led 1-0 at the break. But things turned in Palo Verde’s favor in the second half on its way to its fourth straight trip to the 5A state tournament.
“It was a good comeback,” Hunt said. “In the second half, we got it together. In the first half, we were — I don’t know what it was, nerves or whatever — but we didn’t play well in the first half, but in the second half, I thought we completely dominated the game.”
Palo Verde got a break when the Canyon Springs goalie was given a yellow card to set up a Panthers penalty kick. O’Brian Vera drilled the penalty kick to tie the game at 1-1 with 20 minutes left in the second half.
Parker Turner gave Palo Verde the lead on a header with eight minutes left and Mateo DeCastroverde added another goal in stoppage time to give the Panthers a 3-1 win.
“We got a break on the PK, that changes some things in the game itself,” Hunt said. “Sometimes those go your way, sometimes they go against you, but that was game changer there for us. We’re right back in it. … We have the momentum.”
Contact Alex Wright at awright@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlexWright1028 on X.
