Freelance
ASH FRIEDERICH
sports@tucsoncitizen.com
When Canyon del Oro High School’s Nick Marshall briefly left Thursday’s Class 4A Division I boys soccer semifinal after receiving a yellow card, he wondered if he’d get a shot at redemption.
After completing his hat trick with 3.6 seconds remaining in the second overtime to send his team into a shootout, he piled on the redemption with a game-clinching penalty kick goal giving No. 2 CDO a heart-stopping 4-3 (5-3 in penalty kicks) win over No. 3 Sabino on Thursday night at Tucson High.
“We work on (penalty kicks) every day in practice,” said Marshall, who scored goals in the 44th, 45th and 99th minute. “. . . On the kick, I walked up there and the team told me to hit it as hard as I could but I just placed it (past Sabino goal keeper Chase Ronsman).”
CDO plays No. 5 Scottsdale Chaparral at noon Saturday at Tucson High for the 4A-I championship. CDO, which has never won a boys soccer championship, lost 3-2 in the 2007 4A-I finals to Rincon/University.
Marshall’s game-tying goal in the second overtime nearly didn’t happen. After Sabino’s Jeffrey Weiler put his team up 3-2 in the 98th minute, Marshall was called for a yellow card with 36 seconds remaining in the game.
“I was mad and yelling at the ref. I deserved it,” Marshall said of the card.
When he returned, and with CDO having pulled goalkeeper Ryan Retz to add an extra attacker, Marshall was able to put one by Ronsman.
“I kicked the ball and then fell down,” Marshall said of his third goal. “The next thing I saw was the ball rolling in.”
Sabino cut an early 2-0 deficit in half with a Paul Neff goal in the 62nd minute. The Sabercats, who beat CDO in a shootout for the Brandon Bean Kickoff Classic championship game in early December, tied it at 2 on a William Beatty goal in the 70th minute.
“I think down 2-0 in the second half, most guys would have packed it up and gone away,” Sabino coach Jon Pearlman said. “We certainly didn’t go away . . . These kids have put so much into it and I couldn’t be prouder of them.”
More soccer playoffs coverage, page 7C