Michael Burgess II is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover high school sports for AZPreps365.com

PEORIA-- Sunrise Mountain girls soccer advanced to the 5A state semifinals for the first time in program history after the Mustangs beat the Catalina Foothills Falcons, 1-0, in a quarterfinal Wednesday in Peoria.

Mustangs junior forward Kiki Greathouse scored the lone goal in the 53rd minute to send No. 12 seed Sunrise Mountain a round futher in the playoffs than last season.

The game featured physical and scrappy play from both sides, with multiple fouls being committed by both teams. Sunrise Mountain head coach Sean Fallon said he believed his girls could handle the pressure.

“That’s what we’re all about,” Fallon said. “The girls take pride in being mentally tough and are willing to grind out the tough ones. We’ve had games like this all year where it’s been close and back-and-forth.”

Sunrise Mountain (8-3) will face the top-seed and defending 5A state champion Campo Verde Coyotes (11-0-1) in the state semifinals at noon Saturday at Central High School in Phoenix.

These teams already played earlier this season, with the Mustangs suffering a 2-0 defeat on Jan. 12 in Gilbert. 

Heading into halftime deadlocked at zero, the Mustangs knew they were on the cusp of breaking through with a goal. They just had to put everything together.

“We had a good start in the first half,” Fallon said. “We were just reinforcing that we needed to bring that same energy. We also went over a few minor tweaks to help us keep the shape a bit better, but overall, I think the girls put in a really good effort.”

Sunrise Mountain head coach Sean Fallon speaks to his team during halftime of his team's 1-0 victory over Catalina Foothills. (Photo taken by Michael Burgess II)

Senior defender and team co-captain Kaitlyn Watkins shared these same sentiments, saying that maintaining that level of intensity was the key to securing the victory.

“At halftime, it was all positive,” said Watkins. “Everyone’s admitting ‘I got to work on this,' and we just knew that we needed to go out, bring that energy that we started the game with, and carry it through the whole second half.”

That second-half push gave the Mustangs the momentum they needed.

A free kick curled into the box and bounced through a sea of Falcon and Mustang players before landing at the feet of Greathouse, who slid the ball past Falcons goalkeeper Grace Shoemaker into the lower right corner of the goal.

Down a goal with less than 30 minutes to play, the visitors from Tucson knew that they had to commit more to the attack if they wanted things to swing their way.

“We were down a goal,” Falcons head coach Sou Moussa-Torres said. “We knew we were going to have to gamble, get our outside backs in and play a little bit higher up the field.”

Despite No. 13 Catalina Foothills committing more players to the attack, Sunrise Mountain was able to weather the storm and hold on for the 1-0 victory.

It’s another step up the ladder since returning to 5A for the Mustangs, who lost in the play-in rounds in 2019, Round 1 in 2020, and the quarterfinals in 2021.

Now, Sunrise Mountain advances to the state semifinals as the 12th seed, the lowest seed to advance to the 5A state semifinals since conference/region realignment in the 2016-17 season. However, for Watkins, the low seeding doesn’t matter to her or her teammates.

“We feel like we belong here,” Watkins said. “Our seeding didn’t really show what we were. We’re competing with the top teams, and we’ve shown our ability to do that. We are who we are, and we just play our game.”