By Murray Gleffe
Correspondent
GREEN BAY – The Green Bay Preble boys’ soccer team has relied on its seniors for much of the season.
However, it was a sophomore who came up big in the Hornets’ Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) Division 1 sectional semifinal game Thursday night.
Abraham Navarro notched two goals and an assist to lead No. 2-seeded Preble past No. 3 Brookfield East 3-0 at City Stadium on the campus of Green Bay East High School.
“The guys executed our game plan to perfection,” Preble Head Coach Chris Becker said. “We had a feeling on what we were going to do. We wanted to let (Brookfield) make the mistakes, and we capitalized early.”
With the victory, Preble (17-0-4) advanced to play No. 8 De Pere (12-7-2) Saturday, Oct. 30, at 4 p.m. at Green Bay East for the right to go to the state tournament at the Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee.
The Redbirds, who lost 2-1 to Preble during the regular season Oct. 12, advanced with a 1-0 victory over No. 5 Sussex-Hamilton.
The Hornets jumped on the Spartans from the get-go.
In the 6th minute, Navarro took the ball on the left sideline to the Brookfield end-line.
At the last second, he sent a feed to Brandon Ramirez, who beat goalie Anant Jhaveri for a 1-0 lead.
“Abraham (Navarro) has been big for us all year,” Becker said. “He hasn’t had the success like he had today. He put everything together and is peaking at the right time.”
Turnovers in their zone kept Brookfield from mounting much of an offensive punch in the first half.
Eight minutes later, Navarro notched his first goal of the night from 22 yards out to give the Hornets a 2-0 lead.
“My senior teammates put me in great positions all game,” Navarro said. “It was a team effort with our passing and shooting.”
A bit later, Preble goalie Jay Gumz came up with a lunging save in the 23rd minute after Spartans forward Henry Irwin got an up-and-center look.
With a two-goal lead in the 37th minute, Navarro added to his night by blasting home a shot for a 3-0 advantage.
In the final 40 minutes, the Hornets had a shot hit off the left post by Antonio Jimenez and had a goal taken away with 30 minutes remaining by Sam Hummel after an offside was called.
As the game wore on, play got more physical.
With nine minutes left, Brookfield’s John Urbanek and Preble’s Cesar Cortez got into an all-out tussle near midfield.
Urbanek was issued a yellow card for his unsportsmanlike play.
“When a team is down 3-0, they are desperate,” Becker said. “They were going to do whatever they needed to get the ball up to their forwards. We matched their intensity. There were some hard plays in both halves.”
Navarro said his team needs to be ready for De Pere.
“We need to have a good practice (Friday) to get ready for De Pere,” he said. “It was a close game the first time. We need to talk it out as a group. We’ll be ready for Saturday.”