Arbor View beats Palo Verde in penalties for 5A region boys soccer title — PHOTOS

Arbor View boys soccer coach Robert Starbird has waited 20 years to see his Aggies win a title.

Then came Saturday’s 5A Southern Region championship game against host Palo Verde — part soccer match, part marathon. Starbird had to wait all of regulation, two overtime periods and nine penalty kicks before his dream came to fruition.

Arbor View outlasted the Panthers for the program’s first championship, winning in a penalty kick shootout after playing a 2-2 tie through regulation and overtime.

“It was a dog fight,” Starbird said. “We showed some guts the whole tournament. I tell them, you’ve gotta be willing to suffer. It feels good in the end. They put the work in and they just worked so hard. I’m so proud of this group.”

Both teams advance to the 5A state tournament, which starts Friday at Faith Lutheran. Arbor View gets the No. 1 seed and will face Sparks, the Northern Region’s No. 2 seed at 5 p.m. Palo Verde takes on the Northern Region’s top seed Hug at 6:45 p.m.

Emotions ran high on Saturday, with several skirmishes, hard tackles and verbal jabs throughout. The Aggies racked up five yellow cards and one red card; the Panthers were issued two yellows and one red.

When it mattered most, though, Arbor View (14-8-3) kept calm in the face of a persistent Palo Verde attack.

After playing to a 2-2 stalemate through double overtime, the match was decided by penalty kicks.

Aggie senior forward Desmond Guevara led off, getting one past the outstretched arms of Panther junior goalkeeper Remy Vallet. Palo Verde (16-5-3) sophomore forward O’Brian Vera — the team’s leading scorer — responded with a goal of his own.

From there, the Aggies and Panthers traded three more successful penalty kicks.

Then Palo Verde senior Parker Turner’s attempt ended up in the hands of Arbor View senior goalie Aaden Flores — the one penalty kick not to find the back of the net. Flores scored the final kick of the match, then was mobbed by his Aggie teammates.

“I know that’s my thing, so I knew how to handle them,” Flores said of the clutch penalty kick save. “I knew I had to get the team out of it. … I’m tired, but we got it done.”

The Panthers struck first on a Turner goal roughly 12 minutes into the game. Six minutes later, Guevara tied it up.

Palo Verde took a 2-1 lead in the 17th minute, as junior Mateo DeCastroverde navigated heavy traffic near the goal before scoring.

That lead held until the 15th minute of the second half, when Arbor View junior forward Shamire Lewis netted the equalizer, with an assist by senior midfielder Beckham Klein.

From then on, neither team could eke out an advantage until that fateful penalty kick, with both defenses tightening up.

“I just tell them to keep pushing,” Starbird said. “That’s all we do. We just keep fighting and keep clawing, and just find a way to win. We found a way to win all season long.”