Phillip Gibbs

For West Valley Preps

The Kellis girls’ soccer team has been here before.

In the 2017 campaign, the Cougars advanced to the state 5A championship tournament after defeating North Canyon in the play-in round.

The Apollo Hawks have been here before too. Their 2017 campaign ended in a play-in round loss to Independence.

This year, these two Metro Region rivals meeting in the play-in round, just nine days after having played each other for the region title.

Apollo came out victorious that night but now the stakes were higher. This year, it would not be the #23 Cougars advancing as the #10 seed Hawks defeated them 1-0.

Kellis struggled to keep the Apollo strikers and mid-fielders from penetrating deep into their side of the field most of the game. Apollo, senior striker, Raquel Fuentes, had several good looks at the goal in the first half but Kellis’ defense did a good job of closing in and helping their young goalie, sophomore Olivia Tribbett.

“In the first 15 games (Raquel) had 25 goals. Once teams began to find out who she was they began double and triple teaming her. We saw that today. As soon as she’d receive the ball they were on her,” said Apollo head coach Abraham Enriquez.

The second half of the ball game mirrored the first as Kellis struggled to keep Apollo off their side of the field and maintain any momentum on the offensive side of the ball. However, there were far more penalties received on both sides of the ball in the second as the magnitude of the moment was felt by both teams. The fouls increased but neither team was able to capitalize on any ensuing free kicks.

“It shows the heart of both teams wanting it so bad,” said Kellis head coach Lacey Perdomo when asked about some of the aggressive play in the half.

Apollo Sophomore, Berenice Guevare took advantage of a breakdown in the Kellis defense to score the deciding goal with seven minutes remaining in the second half, propelling her team to the tournament.

“The game plan that we had in place worked well until the last seven minutes,” added coach Perdomo.

This is coach Perdomo’s fourth year at the helm of this team. Her incoming freshman class are now seniors who have grown with her in these four years and she’ll be losing nine of them.

“They work hard for each other and the care for each other. They’re some of the best kids I know and our underclassmen have learned from them the mentality of doing what it takes to win” said an emotional coach Perdomo.

Apollo moves on to play another day and will represent the region in the state tournament.

“I’ll tell my team to stay humble. We’ve been out of the tournament the for a while now. It’s been a rebuilding process and it’s taken everybody trusting each other,” added coach Enriquez when asked how he’ll get his team read for their upcoming game.

Kellis sophomore goalkeeper Olivia Tribbett launches a goal kick Thursday night at Apollo. [Jerry Burch/For West Valley Preps][/caption]