On Wednesday night, the boys varsity soccer team took on Sandia High School in the semi-finals of the Metro Championship.

Albuquerque Academy and Sandia were the only two teams to make it through the round robin phase undefeated. With a veteran squad of 16 seniors, Sandia was clearly the biggest challenge the Academy side had faced this season.

Right from the start, Sandia pressed the Academy players all over the field. Athletic and fast, Sandia had the early run of play with several opportunities on net. Seven minutes in, Sandia capitalized off a long throw in that was headed on by one player and buried in the back of the net by another. The rough start continued for the Academy until the twentieth minute. Slowly, the Academy players started making connections and working the ball out of pressure.

As the last seconds of the half slipped away, the ball swung wide to Lucas Jepsen ’19 who played back to Tai Durell ’19 who had ranged up from his right defense spot. Tai’s cross whipped in front of the goal where Mateo Centenera ’20 challenged the defender, allowing the ball to bounce to Ryan Sabol ’19 who was crashing the far post. Ryan beat the keeper and the Academy went into halftime tied 1-1.

The Academy players felt they had taken the momentum into half and hoped to put together a stronger second half, but Sandia came out with renewed intensity, continuing to hound players all over the pitch and transitioning to attack with tremendous speed. Throughout the first few games of the season, the Academy has been able to assert control over the match in the second half. Sandia never relented and the play washed back and forth, sometimes in Sandia’s favor and then shifting to the Academy. There were few scoring opportunities and each was snuffed out by the strong keeper play from both sides.

When regulation ended with the score still tied 1-1, the teams went into sudden death overtime. At one point Charles Touche ’17 rounded onto net only to see his low shot anticipated and smothered by the Sandia keeper. On the other end, Sandia attacked furiously during the waning moments, appearing to have a tremendous opportunity on a close in header only to see Lucas Schlenzig ’18 somehow parry the ball over the net. After 100 minutes of play, the game would be decided by a shootout.

Each team selected five players who had been playing as the final whistle blew, and each would get a penalty shot. Sandia’s second player missed and the Academy had a chance to win, but the last shot lifted just over the crossbar.

Extra penalty shots. This time, each team would select one player until there was a miss or a save.

The Sandia player scored his shot and then the Sandia keeper made an excellent save on the subsequent Academy player. As the clock closed in on 9 o’clock, Sandia had won by the slimmest of margins.

The Albuquerque Academy record now stands at 3-1 and they will face Valley in a bid for third place in the Metro tournament, Friday at 6 at the APS Complex.