Adrian Trujillo thought his shot was going into the net.
He was wide open on the left side of the field, and his blast toward the goal off his right foot felt right.
“I had a feeling it was going in,” the senior forward for the Emporia High soccer team said.
Trujillo’s hopes of breaking a 1-all tie late in Thursday night’s game against Seaman were dashed when Seaman goalkeeper Jordan Christman stepped in front of the ball.
Shot missed.
Only, Trujillo didn’t count on the ball bouncing right off Christman’s hands straight to Emporia’s Carlos Antonio.
Antonio took the ricochet and drove it past Christman and into the right corner of the net to put Emporia ahead, and the Spartans held on to defeat the No. 5-ranked Vikings, 2-1, at TRYSA.
“Adrian told me, ‘Hey, I’m going to take a shot,’ and I just followed the play,” Antonio said. “When I saw the rebound, I jumped at just the right time and put it into the right corner.”
“Carlos was where he was supposed to be, and he put it away,” Trujillo said.
The victory was a nice rebound for the Spartans (9-3, 5-3 Centennial League) after suffering a 5-0 loss at the hands of No. 2-ranked Washburn Rural on Tuesday.
But more than that, it also gave EHS a leg up on possibly securing home-field advantage in Regional play should the two teams meet up again.
“This was a must-win, because we’re probably going to meet them on the way to State,” EHS coach Steve Pearson said.
“We wanted to see what they were like, and if it comes down to who beat who to have home-field advantage, we wanted it here.
“This was a beautiful win.”
Emporia faced an early deficit when Seaman scored less than four minutes into the game. Caleb Stauffer took a pass through the defense from Myles Wilcox and sidestepped an EHS defender before firing a shot past Spartans goalkeeper Spencer Anderson to make it 1-0.
While Seaman took several more shots at Anderson throughout the first half, he managed to keep the Vikings at bay enough to allow the Spartans to work their way back into the game.
Emporia got its first goal with just less than 15 minutes remaining in the first half thanks to a foul in front of the net on Seaman’s Patrick Hildebrandt, which gave the Spartans a penalty kick.
Much to the dismay of the Vikings coaches and players who were upset at the penalty call, Trujillo made good on the kick, sending his shot into the upper right corner of the net after faking left to tie the game at 1.
“The goalie went left and I put it to the other side,” Trujillo said.
The second half was a back-and-forth slugfest, with the two teams combining for 28 fouls. Neither team truly threatened until Trujillo and Antonio teamed up for the game-winning score with 13 minutes left. The Spartans played ball control from then on to secure the much-needed victory.
“They’re a hustling team,” Pearson said. “Everybody told me that Seaman will hustle us to death, and they did. I got tired watching. But this was big for us.”
Emporia 2, Seaman 1
Thursday at TRYSA
Seaman 1 0 — 1
Emporia 1 1 — 2
Shots on goal — Seaman 10, Emporia 6. Saves — Seaman: Jordan Christman 4; Emporia: Spencer Anderson 5. Corner kicks — Seaman 1, Emporia 2. Fouls — Seaman 22, Emporia 33. Yellow cards — Seaman: Taylor Wasson, Colby Arnold, Kyle Knudson; Emporia: Adrian Trujillo, Alex Guevara. Red card — Wasson.