Allen survives late rally, defeats Lake Highlands in 6A DI regional final thriller
· Yahoo Sports
MCKINNEY – Allen couldn't make it easy.
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The team that has won each of its playoff matches by one goal, edged out another one in a 4-3 thriller over Lake Highlands in the Class 6A Division I Region I final Tuesday night.
Throughout the playoffs, Allen’s been the team hunting for a winning goal: Two late goals in the final minute during the opening two playoff rounds and an extra-time winner last week in the regional semifinal. This time around, Allen was the team protecting a lead late.
Things looked firmly in control when junior Mason Leslie, the hero who scored the winner in the team’s area-round win, dribbled to the edge of the box and curled in Allen’s fourth goal of the night to make it 4-1. Allen had dominated the first-half, taking a 3-0 lead into the break.
Leslie’s goal came just minutes after Lake Highlands’ Asumani Salumu got his team on the score sheet and looked like it had punched Allen’s ticket to the state semifinal.
But in quick succession, Lake Highlands’ Owen Faris scored off a corner kick and, less than six minutes later, Ivan Martinez fired a forceful shot into the net to cut the Allen lead to just one with 26 minutes remaining.
“The seconds were ticking by very slowly,” Allen head coach David Blackburn said. “But every game in the playoffs has been really tight for us, and it's always come down to the very end. So it wasn't necessarily something that was unusual for us. Certainly a lot of credit to Lake Highlands for getting back in the game and really pushing us.”
Allen’s defense settled in not allowing another threatening shot on goal the remaining time in the second half, although Lake Highlands had a few corners during that span.
“This team is just amazing, these last-second goals and games,” senior James Mastrangelo said. “It just shows that we push through to the end, no matter the score. No matter how tight the game is. We always play our hardest and push through to the end.”
Junior forward Daniel Mogeni opened the scoring off a corner delivery from Harsh Kumar in the 10th-minute of play. Sophomore Joao Nunes scored less than 10 minutes later off another corner that bounced around and fell to his foot. Pablo Guzman scored the third goal with under a minute remaining in the first-half.
“Mentality, that's what's carried us through in these really tight games, and there have been a lot of them,” Blackburn said. “It's a massive credit to the leadership in the group, but to the whole group.”
Allen advances to its third state semifinal in program history where it’ll play Klein Cain.
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