With about a minute left in overtime, no scores on the board and an away goal kick coming, a Senior Night clash between Corona del Sol and Desert Vista looked set for stalemate.

Fifty-nine seconds later, Thunder senior Sebastian Ugland turned that prediction on its head.

“There was a chain reaction of one mistake, two mistake, three mistake, goal,” said Aztecs head coach Dan Salas.

There were 10 seconds to play and Desert Vista had earned a throw-in deep in Corona territory. Bradley Brooks rushed to take it and launched it deep into the penalty area as he had done all game long. This time, it fell to Ugland on the far post, whose shot gave his team a 1-0 victory.

The loss ended any hopes Corona had of avoiding a play-in game.

A strong start for the hosts

The Thunder came into the game in 4th place in state, having just thumped Mountain Pointe, 4-0. Yet early signs were optimistic for Corona, with a solid backline anchored by Colby Murphy and Jacob Helm snuffing out most attacks before they even began.

While the visitors lacked creativity, the Aztecs lacked execution. Spells of dominance in the first half, and the majority of the second half, fizzled out as they struggled to work the ball into the penalty area. Endless work from Jacob Flores in the middle, along with Moises Escobedo and Nikhil Chagam helped the hosts push possession into the final third frequently, but from there the side would usually be dispossessed, put in a poor cross or be forced to shoot from distance.

The one serious chance that Corona had came early in the second half. A quick one-two from a throw-in on the right side saw the ball whipped into the penalty box, and amid a crowd of orange shirts eyeing the header, Reyes Carbajal got to it first. The sophomore didn’t get enough power from his head, and the Aztecs were forced to rue the missed opportunity.

A handful of chances for the visitors

Desert Vista may not have had the ball in Corona’s territory much, but when it did, the Thunder looked like they had a chance at scoring.

Halfway through the opening period, a long throw found the head of Jake McCabe, who was denied by a remarkable goal line clearance from Flores. It was the first time that the Thunder had connected with a long throw-in, but previous attempts had shown their tactics – grouping around the goalkeeper en masse in a way that was begging for defensive errors.

Then, with the halftime buzzer approaching, Ugland showed off his pace, beating the defense to knock a ball across the face of goal. Unfortunately for him, that speed was his downfall, and no teammates were close enough to get on the end of it.

Twenty-three minutes after the break, the Thunder’s Chandler Hanscome cut inside from the right before facing a sliding challenge from Murphy on the edge of the goal area. Appeals rang out from the visiting bench, and from the roughly 50 fans who’d made the short trip from Ahwatukee, but the referee was unmoved.

Last-second heroics

Through two periods of overtime, the game looked as though it would end scoreless.  The handful of chances on either side ultimately failed to challenge either goalkeeper.

As the clock counted down, there was one opportunity left in the game. Corona’s Danny Lopez stood over the ball for a free kick a short distance outside of the penalty area. He played a simple cross into the penalty box, and Flores broke free of his marker. He couldn’t keep the header down, and it sailed out for a goal kick. That was that, and the tie was in the books.

Except it wasn’t.

“I was just thinking ‘what if?’” said Ugland, reflecting on the earlier junior varsity game which had seen a last-gasp goal. It’s something that had only happened to him once before, and he has played the game since he was 3 years old.

Then it happened.

The bench leapt to their feet and sprinted across the field. There were 20 or so players together in sheer jubilation, completely unaware that there was still a solitary second left to play.

After the game, Thunder coach Trent Elliot praised his opponents, while also looking forward to their final game on Friday.

“This sets us up to win the region,” he said, “so it’s a step toward what we’re trying to build.”

They next will face struggling Queen Creek, knowing that a win will seal top spot.

For Salas, the challenge is a different one, and while he accepts that the players will feel down “because this was a good game that I felt we definitely had in hand,” he’s still optimistic. “When we watch it on tape,” he adds, “we’re going to see that we did a lot more effective things as a whole.”