The Jaguars finished up a resurgent winter soccer campaign in the opening round of the North Coast Section Division 2 playoffs on Feb. 19, dropping a hard-fought, 2-1 decision to visiting Casa Grande.
The loss gave the Jags a final season record of 11-6-4.
Windsor represented the No. 7 seed in the 16-team NCS tournament, while the Gauchos entered the contest as the No. 10 seed. The teams had battled to a tie earlier in the season so the Jags knew coming in that this match would be a challenge.
The visitors struck early, taking advantage of a couple of early Windsor mistakes to grab a 2-0 lead at the break.
“Halftime was a huge turning point in the game,” WHS coach Gerardo Perez said. “We changed our formation to push our lines forward (using a 3-4-3 formation) and showed great offensive power.”
The Jaguars threatened for most of the second period with little to show for their efforts, finally breaking through with five minutes left in the match on a goal from sophomore Alex Barragan (assist from John Weber) to cut the deficit to 2-1. It was all the Jags could muster the rest of the way as the Gauchos hung on for a 2-1 victory.
“We were very unlucky and couldn’t put the ball in the net,” Perez said. “We kept banging on their door but Casa defended well and luck was not in our side.”
The future looks bright for Windsor, which graduates just four players and is expected to return 13 veterans to next year’s squad, including eight starters.
“Overall it was a great season,” Perez reflected. “We’ve had back-to-back playoff appearances and we’re very happy with that. We can’t wait for next year to start.”
