The numbers keep getting more impressive, and almost unbelievable, but they are accurate. Salpointe head coach Wolfgang Webber has 761 career victories and 11 of those have been state championships, including a 3-1 win over Mica Mountain Friday night in the 4A state final. The Lancers have won the last four state championships in a row, and the last five out of six, and this was supposed to be a rebuilding year after the team graduated nine contributing seniors last winter.

Instead of rebuilding, Weber reloaded with the help of junior standout Leo Gutierrez who has 111 career goals after recording his 14th hat trick Friday night. His 45 goals places him the top five in the nation and tops in Arizona regardless of classification. After a scoreless first half, Gutierrez took an offering from Jose Gutierrez-Pena in the 49th minute and then James Myer found Gutierrez a minute later to put the Lancers up 2-0.

Marco Torres passed off to Diegoctavio Garcia Yanez in the 57th to make it 3-0 but Landon McKendrick cut the lead down to 3-1 in the 75th, only to have Gutierrez (Emiliano Castro) earn his hat trick in the same minute of play.

On the other side, Mica Mountain fielded a team for the first time in 2022 and then Jerry Wood took the 2023 squad to the state playoffs and the Thunderbolts (17-6) earned a No. 2 ranking this year behind No. 1 Flagstaff (13-1-1). The Thunderbolts had to fight through the playoffs to make the state final, beating No. 15 Sahuarita in overtime (3-1), No. 7 Greenway in PKs (4-2) and No. 11 Goldwater in overtime (1-0) before meeting up with the Lancers. For Wood, this was a remarkable coaching performance that took one of the most storied programs scoreless through the half.

“Our whole thing is that we build our program off effort and these kids bring a great attitude and maximum effort to practice every day,” Wood explained on the rapid rise. “We expect the same in our games, and we expect the same outside of soccer as well in the classroom, everything you do, and that's what that's what we base everything on, attitude and effort.”

As a No. 4 seed, Salpointe was written off but the three regular season losses were to national power Sunnyside, 6A power Tucson and 5A power Catalina Foothills. The Lancers beat No 13 Saguaro 2-0 in the opening round, put No. 5 Thunderbird away 7-0 in the quarterfinals and then took out No. 1 Flagstaff 3-1 in PKs in the semifinals to set up the match with Mica Mountain.

Salpointe loses eight seniors, and possibly Gutierrez to high-level club play and Mica Mountain loses only three seniors but history has shown losing players to graduation is not an issue. They will be back.

 

THE GOALS