On Wednesday morning, the Albuquerque Academy boys varsity soccer team had their quarterfinal match of the state tournament against Aztec.

The boys come into the tournament on a ten game winning streak, with hopes that they have figured out some of the issues that plagued the beginning of the season with inconsistent play. Aztec was a surprise quarterfinalist after finishing the regular season ranked 50^th in the state by maxpreps. They rode an excellent goalkeeper through a play-in match against Hope Christian to win the penalty shootout on Saturday.

The keeper came as advertised as he recorded 23 saves on the day. The Academy attack was too much though, coming from both wings and, at times, right down the middle. The scoring started in the eighth minute when Neven Zapatka ’22 took a short layoff from Gabe Saiz ’21 and beat the keeper low. Seven minutes later, Gabe scored his own goal after receiving a driven cross from Kenny Levandoski ’19. When it was all said and done, all available Academy players had seen the field and they had scored nine goals.

Goals were also scored by: Lucas Jepsen ’19, Mateo Centenera ’20 (3x), Tai Durell ’19, Aaron Hill ’19, and Chance Harvey ’21.

Assists were registered by: Gabe, Trevor Dean ’20, Rowe Wilson-Scott ’20, Jackson Taylor ’19, and Neven.

The challenge gets harder as the Academy faces Santa Teresa in the semi-finals at 10:00 this morning. Santa Teresa has allowed the fewest goals in the state and boast a fierce attack. With #1 ranked Saint Pius X and #4 ranked Chaparral losing yesterday, this match with boast the last two highly ranked teams.