Marcos Granda is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Chandler for AZPreps365.com

GILBERT – Desert Vista was crowned the 6A state champion on Thursday night after a 2-0 victory against the Chandler Wolves. Junior forward Micah Vasey was the man of the match, playing a role in both scores with a goal and an assist.

The air at Campo Verde High School, the neutral field where the state championship was played, was still fuzzy after the agonizing girl’s soccer state final between Xavier and Perry (which went for Xavier in a penalty shootout, 3-2), when both Desert Vista and Chandler stepped onto the turf to warm up. 

The 6A boy’s soccer state final featured two teams with very different trajectories. The Thunder were No. 2 in Arizona after only losing one game all season, to Salpointe Catholic in a tournament.

“To go through 26 games and only have one loss in a tournament, and go undefeated during the regular season and the playoffs, it’s a phenomenal team,” Desert Vista head coach Trent Elliott said. "And it’s definitely not me, I have a lot of good players that I could put on the field that allowed us to accomplish that.”

On the other side, Chandler was the biggest surprise of the playoffs. After a good start to the season, they were unable to obtain a win in five straight games (four losses and a tie) and fell all the way to No. 14 in the state. 

Then, the Wolves beat Tolleson Union and the Highland Hawks by the same close score of 1-0. They next defeated the Tucson Badgers in the semifinals in a penalty shootout, 6-5. If Chandler were to defeat Desert Vista, it would be one of the more enchanting Cinderella stories in Arizona prep sports history.

 

However, after a scoreless first half, Micah Vasey assumed the Thunder responsibilities, and gave his team the victory, and the trophy. 

Only five minutes after the second-half kickoff, Desert Vista crossed a ball in a corner kick to the middle of the box. There was Vasey, without opposition, and with a great first touch he found the back of the net on a great strike.

“When I saw the ball coming, I knew I was gonna finish it,” Vasey said, “I had the perfect touch, and I had the perfect everything. The ball came off my foot, and I knew it was going in.”

Although the Wolves tried to even the score, time was against them. When they were playing at their best, they encountered an unexpected problem. The lights at Camp Verde Stadium went dark.

Both bleachers had fun during intermission. First, they turned the lights on their phones, and then they started dancing to Usher songs Yeah and DJ Got Us Fallin' In Love Again. Then they partook in a Sweet Caroline sing-along before the lights returned to being fully functional. 

That recess stopped Chandler’s momentum, and Desert Vista regained control of the game. With only 3:54 to play, Vasey headed the ball to assist his teammate Kaya Yildirim, who scored the clincher to make it 2-0. 

“Micah (Vasey) is a junior, he played well last year as a sophomore, and we missed them at the end of the season last year,” Elliott said. "The kid knows soccer, and he plays soccer hard. He definitely is a game-changer, and I’m always happy he’s on my team.”

Vasey not only was the leader of his team during the state final, he was also one of the main players in the season for Desert Vista. The junior scored 10 goals, becoming the second-best scorer for the Thunder, and was key in the two-overtime semifinal against Hamilton, scoring the opening goal in the 4-3 victory over the Huskies.

“Coming into this game I knew I had to step up” Vasey said, “because I knew they were gonna be underdogs, and I knew they were gonna want to win. So I knew that we had a focus, and came hard, and just from the first whistle I gave everything.”

At the end of the game, before receiving their own trophy, the Thunder congratulated the Chandler Wolves on their playoff run. Later they could celebrate and touch the trophy they had been searching for since 2018.