Monday’s game may have been dedicated to Henley’s seniors, but the Hornets underclassmen dominated the scoresheet.
Sophomores Layne Worrell and Michael Ruelas scored all of Henley’s (11-1-1, 6-1-1) goals in a 5-1 win over Phoenix (4-8-1, 3-4-1) that clinched a third straight Skyline Conference championship. The Hornets also avenged their only loss of the season; the Pirates won the first game 2-1 Oct. 5.
The teams traded goals early. In the seventh minute, Worrell received a lofted free kick in the penalty area and glanced the ball past Phoenix goalkeeper David Reyes. Three minutes later, a long shot from the Pirates bounced off the crossbar and fell right to Dominic Gutierrez, who headed it in to pull his team back even.
“Honestly, I just got caught kind of off guard and a little bit outside my box,” Henley goalkeeper Ivan Garcia said. “I thought it was going over [the crossbar]”.
Garcia’s miscalculation on Phoenix’s goal would be his only real mistake of the night. He bounced back with some impressive saves, including one on a high-arcing shot from inside the penalty area in the 17th minute, and Gonzales awarded him player of the game honors.
In the 28th minute, freshman Luke Balzotti hit a cross from the right side to Ruelas, who put it in from the top of the penalty area to put the Hornets up 2-1. Phoenix had an opportunity to answer again with a corner kick five minutes later, but Henley forced them into a well-defended shot that went wide right.
Worrell nearly scored on a free kick of his own with two minutes until halftime, but Reyes was able to jump into the top right corner of the goal for the save. Five minutes into the second half, Worrell took another free kick from 40 yards out.
He buried it.
Surging with momentum, the Hornets almost pulled a two-minute double, but a point-blank goal from Max Tobiasson was disallowed for offside.
As Henley seized control of the game in the second half, things started to get chippy. A heated exchange involving multiple players on both teams stopped the game in the 55th minute, and the referees called a two-minute break in the 66th minute after a series of yellow cards to allow both coaches to try to settle their players down.
Tensions didn’t ease much after that. There were more bookings, including a red card against Henley that forced them to play the final 10 minutes down a man.
Still, the Hornets stayed composed enough to maintain their hold on the game and even extend their lead. Worrell scored on a penalty kick in the 64th minute to complete the hat trick, and Ruelas closed out the scoring in the 74th minute with a header from a Diego Ramirez free kick.
“I thought the emotions kind of got in the way,” Henley head coach Lupe Gonzales said. “To our credit, the boys stayed focused because they knew what the bigger picture was.”
As the final horn sounded, a group of Henley football players–fresh off winning their own league championship last Friday–ran across the field to shower their friends with confetti. After the team received their postgame talk from Gonzales, athletic director Luke Hammond presented them with the Skyline Conference trophy.
“I’m so happy for these boys,” Gonzales said. “Graduating as many players as we did from last year, I don’t think too many people outside of the Henley area picked us to do…what we have been doing.”
Henley now turns their attention to the state tournament, which starts Nov. 1 with the bracket set to be released later this week.
