Two wins turned into 14 wins and those 14 wins turned into 24. In all, Sahuarita Walden Grove girl's soccer coach Carey Bauer has accumulated 40 victories but none were as important as the 2-0 victory over rival Rio Rico Tuesday night in the Division III semifinal round.

The first team in school history to make the playoffs turned into the first team in school history to play for a championship. As you can see, there are a lot of "firsts" when your school is only four years old.

But the same can be said for Rio Rico and their head coach Daniel Rodriguez.

Though not quite as new (1996), Rodriguez took over a program four years ago that had almost no wins but plenty of losses. Like, Bauer, he saw wins grow from a handful to 18 this year and he credits his players, especially his seniors.

"We went from 0-11 to playing for a shot at state in four years," said Rodriguez.  "I told the seniors they will forever be a part of what we accomplish from here.  They could have left the program but they stuck around."

Rio Rico (18-6-1) fielded a junior varsity squad for the first time that Rodriguez could remember so the player pipeline seems to be in place to help sustain the shift in power to Southern Arizona.

"It's really too bad Walden Grove and Rio Rico didn’t get to play in the championship game," said Bauer. "This is great for Southern Arizona and I hope people will take notice."

Rio Rico comes at you with senior Maria Delgadillo and junior standouts Veronica Cruz and Nicole Paco while Walden Grove features sophomores Isabella Solorza, Lauren Henn, Rachel Carrell and Malia Vanisi but it was a couple of freshman who helped send Walden Grove to their first state championship match.

Freshman Haven Chambers scored in the 11th minute (Lauren Henn) and Mariah Vasquez added another in the 48th (Henn) to provide all the scoring the team needed.

The freshmen duo were the focal point of Bauer's strategy for defeating the tough Rio Rico squad and she will have to come up with a different strategy to defeat No. Fountain Hills in the championship game set for Friday at Gilbert Campo Verde High School.

You would think the coach of the top-ranked and top-seeded team would have plenty of experience to fall back on but it's a bit difficult to give advice to athletes when the whole team is experiencing something new together but Bauer has a strategy.

"I'm going to tell myself I'm not nervous," explained Bauer. "When we lost to Salpointe I felt nervous before the game and I let myself believe I was nervous and we lost but then we beat them the next time."

A fluke? Walden Grove beat Tucson Salpointe and Tucson Sahuaro this year. This team is as real as their 24-1 record and they will need to play their match against defending champion Fountain Hills like they played all the rest.

"Walden Grove is a great team no doubt," added Rodriguez. "But we made them earn everything. We made them work."

It's that kind of tough-play that will ultimately help both Walden Grove and Sahuarita improve for years to come.