By Brian Reed-Baiotto, Correspondent
San Gabriel Valley Tribune 11/20/11
IRVINE - There's an old saying that goes, "To be the man, you've got to beat the man."
For the second year in a row, Nogales High star utility player Nick Estevez remained the man after Saturday's 8-6 victory in the CIF-Southern Section Division 7 championship over Don Lugo at the William Woollett Aquatics Center.
Estevez had a game-high four goals to lead the Nobles (29-4) to their second consecutive title despite trailing much of the game.
Estevez needed one goal to break the CIF-SS single-season scoring record that now is his at 233.
Don Lugo (26-7) never trailed until Estevez scored his final goal of the game with 4:48 remaining. The Conquistadores were outscored 5-2 in the second half and were shut out in the fourth quarter.
A game-changing play occurred with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter when a Don Lugo 2-meter shot was blocked that would have put the Conquistadores ahead 7-5.
After the save, Nogales goalie Christian Ortiz made an outlet pass to Estevez, who skipped the ball passed Don Lugo goalie Chris Ibarra as the third-quarter buzzer sounded to tie the score at 6.
"That was the turning point in the game when we were able to block their shot and Nick scored as time expired to tie the game," Nogales coach Alexander Matal said. "I told our guys during timeouts and throughout the game that we needed to be patient and get good shots and it paid off late in the game."
Austin Postivoit and Tim Zimlich each had two goals for Don Lugo, which led 4-2 and 5-3 but couldn't close the deal late with some sloppy passing.
"We didn't score when we needed to and they scored when they needed to," Don Lugo coach Karl Reiter said. "We were dominating for almost the entire game, but we started to rush things and fell a little short."
Ramon Sanchez added two goals for the Nobles while Victor Castaneda and Marco Garcia scored a goal each.
"It took about a week for it to sink in last year when we won a CIF championship and it will probably be the same this year," Estevez said after the game. "We always start slow and finish strong and we did that again today. It's pretty exciting to break the scoring record, but this is about our team and not me."
Vince Vizcaino and Lyle Parks each added a goal for the Mt. Baldy League champions.