Catonsville cousins Tony Argueta and Chris Argueta have played soccer together since they were young, but they will be forever linked as the the pair who delivered the Comets’ first Baltimore County championship since 2016.
Tony converted his cousin’s cross with 5:30 left in the second overtime, giving the host Comets a dramatic 2-1 victory over defending county champion Hereford.
“He was crossing it to me, but I saw their keeper come out and I thought I should finish one time. I took an extra touch and I just finished it and we got a win,” Tony Argueta said. “I saw [goalie Reese Mays] making a move toward me and I ran forward.”
Argueta raced over to the packed crowd and celebrated with a swarm of Comets (9-2-1).
“I just jumped in the stands I was so happy that we won, overtime,” he said.
His chance almost never came as the Bulls (7-6) took a 1-0 lead with 2:23 left in regulation when Finn Demps headed in a corner kick from Will Johnson.
The celebration, though, was short-lived because the equalizing goal came just 15 seconds later when Dom Brown won a high ball sent in by Noah Rice seconds before goalie Mays got there. Brown sidestepped the keeper and drilled it home.
The goal was nearly as dramatic as the final goal as both came out of nowhere in a game Hereford dominated time of possession and shot attempts.
“The goals were both kind of loosely created from nothing,” Catonsville coach Brendan Kennedy said. “Both goals we got just came from pace and catching them off guard and then perfect finishing from Dom and Tony.”
Hereford had a chance to win with under seven seconds left in the first overtime, but Brayden Dull’s free kick from 25 yards out clanked off the crossbar and the rebound shot sailed wide.
“To be fair, we had a couple of chances to put the game away prior to that and we didn’t do it. We didn’t capitalize,” Hereford coach Adam Mizell said. “When you let a good team like Catonsville hang around, it’s going to be an adventure.
“I felt we did everything we could possibly do. I thought we were deserving to win the game, but this game is funny sometimes. You can do all the things you set out to do, you generate chances, lock down defensively and you still come up on the short end of it.”
Hereford outshot the Comets, 32-10, including 23-4 in the second half and the Bulls had several more throw-ins in the Comet defensive zone. They also earned 12 corner kicks compared to Catonsville’s one.
“The goal they got, that guy was completely wide-open,” Kennedy said. “We dropped a coverage there, but otherwise you make your defense have to work that hard, that’s about as good a job they could possibly do to only give up one.
The Comet defense included Matt Carlson, Muhammad Kholti Yamani, Toby Tracht and Colin Murray in front of goalie Stanley Simonsen (nine saves).
“Stanley, a shout out for our goalie. That’s an incredible game for him, the game of his career,” Kennedy said. “Their goalie is fantastic. He gave us tons of problems the last time we played them and he played significantly better this time around, their whole team did, they came to play, they played the better game.”
Hereford’s Mays had five saves and he was an instant offensive threat with booming kicks.
Simonsen had a diving stop of a shot by Ben Dull midway through the first half and another tough save on him later in the half. But he was really tested on 10 second-half corners.
“It was good having action,” Simonsen said. “I don’t like having six corners in a row. It was good having balance though. I had to be high off the line and pay attention.”
Hereford’s defense, led by Carson Cabral, Brayden Dull, Sam Nicholson and Blakely Auvil controlled the back and Grant Ronnebaum set up opportunities through the midfield, but the Bulls only capitalized once.
“We are proud of our guys. They played their butts off and I told them that,” Mizell said. “They are very sour right now and full of sorrow, but we have to literally forget it because we have a big game Wednesday in regionals.”
Hereford hosts Manchester Valley in the first round of regionals. Catonsville gets a first-round bye and will face the winner of Howard-Franklin on Friday.
But Monday night, all they focused on was the championship.
“I’m super excited that we won and also can’t believe that we won,” Simonsen said.
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