The Snowflake Lobos are state champions in boys fall soccer after working their way through the top two seeds in the state tournament to claim the title on Saturday evening. Snowflake started their state tournament run as the No. 3 overall seed and opened the tournament with a 3-1 home-field quarterfinal win over sixth-seeded Blue Ridge on Tuesday.
That advanced them in the bracket to Sedona where they upset the No. 2 team in Sedona on Thursday by a final of 4-1 to advance to the state title match. Sedona had just one regular season loss up to that point.
With the semi-final win the Lobos advanced to the state championship match on Saturday evening at Westwood High School. Top-ranked Chino Valley was once again in the title game and looking for a three-peat having won the past two state championships.
Snowflake and Ben Sundby took that vision away with a 4-3 win. Sundby scored three goals including the goal which broke a 3-3 tie with just four minutes left in the match. The loss was the second time the Lobos had defeated Chino Valley. Their first meeting back on Aug. 22, also resulted in a single-goal win for the Lobos who won that meeting 2-1. Chino had not lost since that first match. Snowflake completed the season with a record of 13-1-1 and hadn’t lost a regular season match since Aug. 23.
The Lady Lobos also advanced to the play-in bracket, where they met up with No. 3 St. Johns on Tuesday of last week. The sixth-seeded Lobos were shut out by St. Johns bringing an end to their season. It was the third time St. Johns had beaten the Lobos this year, however, all three matches were close. Snowflake finished the season with a record of 6-6-1.
