Playing a man down and trailing twice, the Spartans forced extra time on Brooks Meyer’s late free kick before the second-seeded Arrows pulled away 4-2 in the Class AA quarterfinals
WATERTOWN, S.D. — For 80 minutes Saturday, the Spearfish Spartans did exactly what they had done all season. They fell behind and answered. They lost a player and kept fighting. When it looked like the season was over, they found one more goal.
They just couldn’t find the last one.
Watertown’s Roger Carranza scored twice in overtime, and the No. 2 seed Arrows beat No. 7 Spearfish 4-2 in the Class AA boys soccer state quarterfinals Saturday, Oct. 10, at the Allen Mitchell Athletic Complex. The loss ended a season that changed what Spearfish soccer believes it can be.
The Spartans finish 10-3-3, a full reversal of last year’s 3-10-1 mark. In Anthony Bradley’s first season leading the program, Spearfish went from a team that, in its own players’ words, used to shut down when it fell behind to one that hadn’t lost since Aug. 29.
A rough start, a quick answer
Watertown needed less than four minutes to test that resolve. Xane Fligge put the Arrows ahead at the 36:43 mark of the first half, and the home crowd settled in for what looked like another lopsided afternoon. The Arrows had beaten Pierre 6-0 in the first round and had won nine games by three goals or more.
Spearfish didn’t flinch. With 11:07 left in the half, Keegan Gruenwald scored to tie it 1-1, and the Spartans took that tie into halftime against one of the state’s most dangerous attacks.
Holding the line
That attack ran through Carranza, Isaac Thorson and Fligge, a trio that had combined for more than 45 goals this season. Spearfish’s back line, led by standout efforts from Jonah Gatz and Tadum Cockrell, kept them in front for most of the afternoon. The Spartans challenged every ball, closed every lane and made Watertown work for every look.
Then the game turned against them. With roughly 14 minutes left in regulation, the Spartans’ starting goalkeeper was sent off with a red card for handling the ball outside the box. Spearfish went to its backup keeper and played the rest of the match with 10 men.
Watertown pushed, and with 3:52 left Thorson finally broke through for a 2-1 lead.
Next ball
All season, Bradley preached a “next ball” mindset, the idea that a mistake or a goal against is over the moment it happens. Back in September, he summed up his team’s approach with a simple question: “Who cares if we’re down 2-0?”
Down one, down a man and down to the final minutes on the road, Spearfish showed it meant it.
With 53 seconds left in regulation, Brooks Meyer stepped up to a free kick and buried it to tie the game 2-2. It was the kind of goal this group had been scoring all fall, and it sent a short-handed team into overtime against an opponent riding a 10-game winning streak.
Watertown pulls away
The extra player finally told in overtime. Carranza scored just over a minute into extra time and added another a few minutes later to seal it. His two goals gave him 22 for the season, believed to be a Watertown single-season program record.
Watertown keeper Owen Muller finished with five saves. The Arrows, now 14-1-1 and winners of 11 straight, host sixth-seeded Sioux Falls Jefferson in the semifinals Tuesday, Oct. 13, at 6 p.m.
Afterward, Watertown coach Jesse Hauck acknowledged the game hadn’t been pretty for his side. He called Spearfish a tough, scrappy young team with a very bright future.
What comes next
That last part may be the most important takeaway for Spearfish. This roster was built around a small senior class of Ethan Croff, Evan Duncan and Caleb Verhulst, with underclassmen handling meaningful minutes all season. Many of those younger players got their first taste of the state tournament on Saturday, in a game that went to overtime on the road against one of the best teams in Class AA.
A year ago, Spearfish won three games. This year, the Spartans earned a seventh seed, won a playoff game, and took a 14-win Watertown team to overtime while playing a man down.
The season ended Saturday. The belief that built it didn’t.