Photo by Jim Marczesky Spring Valley's Sean Flynn battles Northwestern's Alexis Martinez for a header. Enzo Martinez scored one goal and assisted on the other as the Northwestern Trojans upended Spring Valley 2- 0 at Stone Stadium Saturday, May 17 to capture the Class 4A boys soccer championship.

Northwestern dominated the play from the start, as most of the action was in Spring Valley's end of the field during the first half. The Trojans outshot the Vikings 9- 1 in the first half, but could not convert. Viking keeper Will Frierson made a couple of nice saves, and the Vikings got a little lucky. One shot by the Trojans' Zack Clark found its way behind Frierson, but was stopped by Thomas Clements.

Less than a minute later, Martinez's younger brother Alexis took a shot that beat Frierson but hit the post, and Clark drilled the rebound into the side of the net. The lone bright spot on offense for Spring Valley came in the fifth minute, when Thomas Wollersheium crossed a pass in front of the Trojan net, but just out of the reach of Sean Flynn. At the half, the teams were tied at nil.

Photo by Jim Marczesky Spring Valley's Kris Hartvigsen leaps for the ball over Northwestern's Alexis Martinez. The second half featured more of the same. Northwestern kept attacking, keeping the Vikings on their heels and forcing the defense to continue marking forwards Enzo Martinez and Ricardo Garabanzo. Frierson made a few more good saves, getting some help from defender Steven Verdugo on one shot when the ball got past him, and then having a shot by Martinez go just wide in the 58th minute. But the bend- but- don't- break defense finally broke. Martinez crossed the ball in front of the net, and before Frierson could react, Garabanzo slid in for the initial goal of the match.

The Vikings then appeared to start playing with a sense of urgency. Realizing that a perfect season, a state championship, and a number one or two national ranking depended on their winning the game, Spring Valley began to make better touches, to play with more cohesiveness, and to attack the Northwestern defense. Wollersheium finally got a shot in the 77th minute, beating keeper Ryan Foster, but the ball went wide right.

Photo by David Martin Spring Valley's Michael Czulinski tries to get position on Northwestern's Robbie Benson. The Vikings then kept the pressure on the Trojans, pushing everyone forward, even having Frierson at the edge of the center circle - and then Martinez got the ball. Frierson, having retreated to his box, realized that he was out of position and had only one option, to try to cover the ball at the edge of the box. But Martinez skillfully poked it away from the diving keeper, and touched it into the net for the clinching score.

The Trojans finished the season 23- 2 and reclaimed the trophy the Vikings took from them last year. Their only two losses came to Chapin (2- 1) on February 24 in the Lake Murray Challenge and to Spring Valley on April 21. That was a 2- 1 match decided by penalty kicks. The Vikings finished 25- 1.

Photo by David Martin Spr ing Valley goal - keeper Will Fr ierson gets inverted on a save attempt. Photo by Jim Marczesky Spring Valley's Taylor Wells heads away a Northwestern charge. Photo by Jim Marczesky Spr ing Valley's Thomas Woller - sheium tries to get a kick off.