Arizona Boys high school soccer: 6A-4A playoff recaps, 3A championship preview

The first round of the 6A-4A boys Arizona high school soccer tournaments finished up Tuesday night apart from two games postponed by weather.

Here's a recap of where things stoodd as of Wednesday along with a preview of Saturday's quarterfinals matches and 3A championship game (All 6A-4A games Saturday at 2 p.m., at higher seed's school; 3A championship 4:30 p.m. Saturday at Westwood High School in Mesa. Tournament seedings noted with team names).

6A

No. 1 Tucson, one of the favorites, defeated No. 16 Mountain Ridge 6-0. The Badgers, who only sport one loss in the regular season, will host No. 9 seed Mesa in the second round. Mesa and No. 8 seed Highland were deadlocked at 2-2 in overtime. Mesa prevailed 4-2 in the penalty shootout. The Jackrabbits are on a six-game winning streak according the Arizona Interscholastic Association, and will have to play near perfection to upset the No. 1 Badgers.

No. 5 Perry at No. 4 Sunnyside could prove a competitive quarterfinals game. Both teams kept clean sheets in their first-round wins over Camelback and Carl Hayden, respectively. Perry will have a bit of an uphill battle to defeat Sunnyside, as the Blue Devils are undefeated when playing at their home field according to AIA. But Perry comes into the match sporting only one loss.

No. 6 Hamilton vs No. 3 Brophy will be a rematch. The two teams played each other nearly two weeks ago to finish up the regular season, with Brophy defeating Hamilton 2-1, handing the Huskies their only section loss of the season. Now, the teams will face each other again on the same field. With their first-round victory over Liberty, Brophy now enters the matchup with an eight-game winning streak according to AIA. If any team could upset Brophy in the second round, it's Hamilton. They have the required motivation to avenge their loss.

The final matchup still had yet to be decided as of Wednesday afternoon. No. 2 San Luis coasted past No. 15 North 5-0 in the first round but will have to wait to see who their second-round opponent will be. The game between No. 10 Desert Vista and No. 7 Pinnacle was postponed due to a rain delay. The game was scheduled to resume late Wednesday afternoon, according to the Pinnacle High School Twitter account.

5A

No. 1 Ironwood proved their status as the favorites by defeating No. 16 Mountain View Marana 6-0. They'll get a second-round matchup against No. 9 Chaparral, which won on penalty kicks against No. 8 Desert Mountain. Chaparral will need to pull out all the stops to have any chance at upending Ironwood, as which is undefeated this season, according to the AIA.

No. 12 Yuma Kofa upset No. 5 Lake Havasu in penalty kicks, and they'll have a second-round matchup against No. 4 Gilbert Campo Verde, which scored 6 goals in their game against No. 13 Desert View. Campo Verde boasts a nine-game winning streak.

Elsewhere, No. 11 Centennial downed No. 6 Catalina Foothills 1-0 to move on to the second round. The Coyotes net face No. 3 Horizon, which hasn't lost at home this season according to the AIA.

No. 7 Queen Creek Casteel will face No. 2 Verrado in the second-round. Casteel enters the game with only two losses, but Buckeye Verrado comes into the game with only one loss. It should be a closer game than the seeding suggests, but this is without a doubt Casteel's toughest test.

4A

No. 1 Tucson Salpointe Catholic dominated No. 16 Thunderbird 8-1 in the first round. The Lancers will host No. 9 Tucson Flowing Wells, which is coming off of an overtime first-round victory against No. 8 Gilbert. Salpointe defeated Flowing Wells 5-1 earlier in the season.

No. 12 Dysart pulled off a surprising victory over No. 5 Moon Valley in the first round. Dysart next will face No. 4 Arizona College Prep, which finished undefeated in section play, with a 5-0 record. However, ACP only defeated No. 13 Mica Canyon 1-0 in the first round. There is a real shot of another upset if Dysart can keep up their high scoring form, having scored at least four goals.

No. 14 Tucson Ampitheater gave No. 3 Barry Goldwater fits in the first round, but Goldwater pulled away at the end by defeating the Panthers 5-4. Like No. 2 San Luis in 6A, their second-round opponent still has yet to be decided. The game between No. 11 Deer Valley and No. 6 Bradshaw Mountain was postponed due to weather Tuesday. According to AIA, the game will be played Thursday at 5 p.m.

No. 7 Walden Grove vs No. 2 Saguaro is the last of the ssecond-round matchup in the 4A tournament. Saguaro has an 11-game winning streak according to AIA following the Sabercats' 6-1 first-round victory over No. 15 Tempe.

3A Championship preview

Saturday's 3A championship match features No. 5 Northwest Christian versus No. 2 Phoenix Country Day.

Both teams have made convincing runs to the final. In their three games before the championship, Northwest Christian accumulated 10 goals while only conceding one goal, which was in the first game. However, they'll be playing their toughest opponent yet, in Phoenix Country Day. PCD has not conceded a goal yet in the tournament, while scoring a combined 18 goals in their three games leading up to the final.

These two teams also have some familiarity with each other, having played in the regular season, where PCD won 1-0 according to AIA. However, during their eight-game winning streak after that, the Crusaders have scored at least three goals in every game they've played.

The 3A Championship will be held at a neutral site, Westwood High School in Mesa, Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona boys high school soccer 6A, 5A, 4A playoff recaps, 3A Championship preview