Minutemen soccer team to state
Face Omaha Skutt Friday

     Upstart Lexington has qualified for the Nebraska Class 'B' Boys State Soccer Championships at Creighton University in Omaha this week.

     Coach Michael Zarate's club (7-8) upset Holdrege in the Class B-6 District Championship game at Kearney, 7-0, and will face top-seeded Omaha Skutt (14-2) at 1 p.m. this Friday.

     After blanking the Dusters, Zarate quipped, 'Unbelievable.' He added, "After losing the last two years in Districts to Holdrege and losing both regular season games, it was finally time for Lexington to win. We didn't play especially well the last game against them at home and didn't score a goal and that left us feeling pretty lousy. But, we were focused and determined to play our game and make them react to us instead of what happened the last game."

     Santiago Perez got Lex on the board early in the game with an 11th minute goal, off a hard shot that bowed the back of the net. After that, the game slowed down with not many shots by either team in the fist half.

     Zarate said, "When we came in at halftime, we knew that a one goal game would not work against a team that had beaten us twice." Perez put the Minutemen up by two in the 45th minute and Aaron Gomez gave Lex a three goal lead five minutes later.

     Thereafter, the Minutemen felt confident. Santiago pushed the Lex margin to four, then Zarate started to sub out the starters. With reserves in the lineup, Lex continued to apply pressure. Victor Lopez scored in the 78th minute and Perez added two more goals in the next two minutes.

     Zarate noted, "If you ask our players who they think contributed the most to our team, they will tell you that they all matter and they can't point out any single player and that is what makes this team so good."

     In other first-round state tournament games, Lincoln Lutheran (14-2) will clash with Waverly (13-3) at 9 a.m. Friday; Lincoln Pius (14-0) and York (11-8) are paired at 11 a.m., and South Sioux City(12-3) will clash with Elkhorn (11-6) at 4 p.m.

     The Lutheran-Waverly and Pius-York winners will collide at 6 p.m. Saturday, while the Lex-Skutt and South Sioux-Elkhorn victors will meet at 8 a.m. Saturday. The Class 'B' championship match is set at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 13th.

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