The Class 4A boys soccer playoffs will have a new champion this year. Carrollton R.L. Turner upset the 2010 4A state champs Frisco Wakeland, 2-1, on Wednesday night in the sectional round of the playoffs. R.L. Turner (25-2-2) went up 2-1 in the first half on goals by Isai Mireles and Luis Martinez and held off a staunch Wakeland attack in the second half.
"They came out in the second half, and really pressed us," R.L. Turner coach Marshall Huston said. "We weren't trying to sit on a one-goal lead. With a team that's as good as they are, you can't do that."
Isai Mireles, who's set a school record with 35 goals this season, adding 26 assists, put R.L. Turner up 1-0 within the first three minutes of the game, beating Wakeland's keeper Nick Petolick on a left-footed goal into the back corner at a sharp angle.
"Isai is such a gifted player, technically very good," Huston said. "They marked him really, really well. He's just such a gifted player, that he'll score if he gets loose."
Wakeland (24-2-0) soon answered back, with a goal by Mitchell Francois. Francois' free kick from 25 yards out was deflected in off of a R.L. Turner defender. Huston said that he had warned his team about giving up free kicks and set pieces to Wakeland.
"We are a physically small team," Huston said about the district champs of 20-4A. "So I told them, 'Don't foul, just stay on your feet.'"
Martinez's goal came off of a throwin, where Nick Petolick, an Oral Roberts signee, came out of his goal in an attempt to grab the loose ball in the box. It flicked off his hands, and bounced toward Martinez, who converted a bicycle kick into the open net.
Huston said that he thought that his team would score more goals and would need to, given Wakeland's offensive abilities.
He said that he desperately did not want to go to a shootout. R.L. Turner had lost to Wakeland in the Little Elm tournament earlier in the season in a shootout, and Huston knew enough about Petolick to know that he didn't want to see him again in that situation if his team could avoid it.
It was a tumultuous 2011 playoffs for Wakeland, who had to come back from a two goal deficit in their opening match game against Prosper. R.L. Turner will play Bryan Adams next week.
"It's cliched to say that we are taking it one game at a time, but it's true," Huston said. "R.L. Turner hasn't gotten this far in pretty much anything, so this is uncharted water for these kids. They are just excited about every game."