By Brett Okamoto (contact)

Sat, Nov 15, 2008 (3:27 p.m.)

Las Vegas High School claimed its first soccer state title in school history Saturday with a 4-2 win over Galena for the 4A championship. The Wildcats were nearly perfect all season long, finishing with a 16-0-3 record.

"We just always try to play good soccer," said Wildcats coach Vince Hart. "To do the work we do is very satisfying. It was a physical game [Galena] gave us today but I think our quality came through in the end."

Danny Sanchez scored the game's first goal two minutes in with a header over Galena goalkeeper Max Giesler on the Wildcat's first shot of the game. It took an extra eight minutes for the Grizzlies to get going, but they tied the game 1-1 with their first shot of the game as well by Dylan Neff.

The Grizzlies took a 2-1 lead in the second half when the Wildcats accidentally scores on themselves when the ball took an unlucky bounce off of a corner kick. But instead of giving Galena momentum, the goal seemed to wake up the Wildcats' offense.

"We never put our heads down after that happened," said midfielder Jaime Toscano. "We didn't come this far to put our heads down when we were losing. We put in everything we had and left it on the field."

Juaquin Rivas tied the score on a penalty kick and eventually gave the Wildcats the lead off a pretty assist from Toscano. Junior Michael Boldry made it 4-2 with 12 minutes to go.

The Grizzlies may have been running on empty after back-to-back overtime games that got them into the championship, including a 0-0 tie with Bishop Gorman in the semifinal game that Galena won in a shootout. The team fought hard late and even earned a few scoring opportunities at the end of the game but were unable to capitalize on them.

"We kept fighting and that's been the spirit of the kids all season," said Galena coach Marco Merio. "We played every minute and that's all you can ask. [Las Vegas] deserved to win today."

After years of missed opportunities and close calls, the Wildcats' undefeated record has made the wait for the championship worth it.

"There are no words for what I'm feeling right now," Toscano said. "I've been on varsity for the last four years now and each year we were capable of doing this but just couldn't make it happen. This year I took it upon myself to go all the way. All the work we've put in has finally paid off."

Brett Okamoto can be reached at 948-7817 or brett.okamoto@lasvegassun.com.