MCHS outlasts International via penalty kicks, 4-3

No. 14 Morgan City and No. 19 International High School of New Orleans couldn’t decide their Division III first-round playoff game in 80 minutes of regulation.
They couldn’t settle the match in two 10-minute overtime periods as well as two five-minute sudden-death periods, either.
Instead, it took penalty kicks down to the last one -- freshman Jose “Boy” Aguilera's goal -- to secure a 0-0 (4-3 penalty kicks) victory and avoid an upset by International en route to the second round of playoffs.
“No pressure,” Aguilera said of what it was like taking the shot. “You keep your head up. You know it’s an intense game, but you just got to fight through it.”
He said it was “amazing” to be able to help his team win the game.
Morgan City now will face District 7-III foe E.D. White in Thibodaux Wednesday at 7 p.m. in second-round action.
It’s a rematch of a game last year that nearly went as long, ending with the Tigers upsetting the Cardinals to advance to the quarterfinals.
“It feels amazing,” Morgan City goalie Daniel Valadez said. “I hope we can do the same thing like we did last year.”
Valadez had to fight through adversity in Saturday’s playoff contest.
While he had multiple saves for the Tigers, including the first two in the penalty kick period, he allowed an own-goal right before the end of the second 10-minute overtime
period.
However, the goal was waived off as the ball went out of bounds prior to the apparent goal.
Later, in the first sudden death period, International had another shot near the Morgan City goal after a mistake on Valadez, who had possession of the ball and then released it before picking it up again.
However, the International shot was deflected away before it ever got to the goal.
Valadez said you just have to forget everything that happens in good and bad times and keep playing.
In the penalty kick phase, however, Valadez made up for his earlier miscues.
He deflected International's first two goal attempts, while Morgan City got the first goal from Mario Sanchez.
Irving Montes missed the second kick for Morgan City, and International tied the game at 1 on its next penalty kick
Valadez gave Morgan City the lead when he connected on a goal for a 2-1 lead.
International tied the game again, this time at 2, on penalty kicks on its next possession before Edgar Calderon connected for Morgan City for a 3-2 advantage.
After International got another goal to tie things up at 3-all, Morgan City got the game-winner from Aguilera.
“Daniel, great goalie and a great field player,” Morgan City coach Trevor Patterson said. “If he could play on the field, he’d be one of our top scorers, too, but he’s an excellent
goalie, and he came up big the first two saves, and we told him, ‘hey, he’ll be the difference of it.’ He also takes the penalty kicks and nobody has a chance with him. I was going to save him for last because of the pressure, but when we saw that they had scored two, I wanted him to put it in the middle just to secure it, and then Boy came up big at the (end) as a freshman.”
While both teams had opportunities before the game got to penalty kicks, neither could successfully get the ball in the goal.
“I would have rather seen that game (go this length) against E.D. White than the team we played,” Patterson said. “No disrespect to them. They’re a great team, have some great athletes and coming into it … I knew it was going to be a close match. I wasn’t thinking it was going to go all the way down to the wire with the double overtimes and then penalty kicks. We should have been able to put it away sooner. … I’m glad we won.”
Saturday’s game was International High School’s first playoff soccer game in Louisiana High School Athletic Association competition.
The school has competed under the auspice of the LHSAA for just two years.
Head coach Brennen Brasseaux said, “It comes down to the very end of the game, and both teams gave everything they had and took it to the very last person in a penalty kick. You can’t ask for a harder fought game. Very proud of my guys.”