Washington headed to city finals

Updated: March 22, 2011 5:22PM

Everyone involved in the Washington boys soccer program will tell you no one thought they would be this good. But to be fair, the Minutemen players and coaches didn't begin to believe it themselves until just recently.

Misael Martinez smashed in a 14-yard shot from a sharp angle 5:15 into the first half and the defensive unit of Saul Gama, Juliano Rodriguez, Sergio Frasco and Jaime Prado held firm in front of goalie Edgar Torres (nine saves) in a 1-0 victory Wednesday over Juarez in a Public League semifinal at Lane Stadium as the Minutemen booked their first appearance in the city championship game in program history.

"Washington made it to a championship game, nobody is going to believe this," Torres said. "Nobody thought we could do this, but we did it."

But despite an undefeated record, it took a 4-2 victory over Public League favorite Little Village in late September to instill the Minutemen (15-0-2) with the confidence they needed to believe making the program's first city championship game was possible.

"We had no idea we could go into the city championship game with an undefeated record," Martinez said. "Once we beat Little Village we really started believing we could take the city championship. We have a lot of heart and we believe in each other and that's what gotten us this far."

Jose Munoz had three saves for the Eagles (16-6-2).

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