It seemed Northside had things working in its favor as the Grizzlies entered the 7A State Tournament.

They were riding an 11-game winning streak while winning the outright 7A-Central title and getting the conference’s No. 1 playoff seed. They were also playing the 7A tournament at the friendly confines of Mayo-Thompson Stadium in front of a large contingent of fans.

But the weather, not to mention the play of Rogers Heritage, dashed the Grizzlies’ hopes.

Playing in a steady rain, underdog Heritage rallied from a halftime deficit to tie the score. That sent the game into overtime, where in the second sudden death session, Pedro Garcia’s game-winning goal with 6:35 left handed Northside a 2-1 defeat Friday in the 7A quarterfinal round.

“I really liked our chances coming in, but weather affects both teams, but I think it affected it a little bit more for ourselves,” Northside coach Mauricio Maciel said.

“It looked like maybe if the weather had held, we could have played a little better. But we did not react as well as they did to the rain.”

Instead of getting their 20th win and advancing to the 7A semifinals, the Grizzlies instead will end the season at 19-3. Heritage (14-5), the No. 4 seed from the 7A-West which defeated Southside in the first round Thursday, will play Rogers in today’s semifinal at 10 a.m.

“They’re a good team; we had not really seen them through the season, we saw them (Thursday in the opening round against Southside), but playing against them was a little different,” Maciel said of Heritage. “They have a lot of talented players that can change the game as we saw and they’re a more experienced team.

“I remember most of those players coming back from last season since they had been in our conference, so they had a little bit more experienced players. ... We are a little young, and I think that had a little bit to do with the result (Friday) as well.”

Northside and Heritage played to a 1-all score at the end of regulation, forcing a 10-minute sudden death overtime period. Both teams had chances to score, but neither were able to capitalize, and that forced an extra 10 minutes of sudden death.

But at that point, the Grizzlies were in a precarious position.

Early in the first overtime period, junior Alejandro Iturriaga received his second yellow card of the match, resulting in a red card, meaning he had to leave the game and forcing the Grizzlies to play a man short. Then early in the second overtime, junior Jason Mendoza came up with severe cramps and had to be helped off the field.

“That’s something else we could not overcome,” Maciel said. “Alejandro had been a starter for us and was pretty solid back there and not having him there definitely was another factor that did not help us.

“We were thin as it is, and then those two guys (Iturriaga and Mendoza) come out. Also our center-mid, Luis Paredes, he was also not doing too well so he was also out for a good period of time in the overtime, so when you’re down three starters, that will definitely impact you.”

Heritage took advantage of the situation.

With 6:35 left in the second overtime, Garcia received a pass from teammate Chris Cano and placed the ball past the reach of Grizzly goalkeeper Chuy Parga into the left side of the net for the game-winner.

The Grizzlies got on the board first with 16:09 left in the first half. Senior Jesus Rodriguez delivered a cross pass to fellow senior Cesar Ramirez, who quickly struck the ball with his head, and the ball sailed into the upper right corner of the net for a 1-0 Grizzlies’ lead.

That was the score at halftime as the rain began to intensify, and it continued to rain throughout the remainder of the match. Garcia also accounted for Heritage’s goal in regulation, a header which tied it at 1-all with 29:29 left in regulation.

But as it turned out, Garcia wasn’t done scoring, as he later delivered the goal which put an end to Northside’s tremendous season.

“I think mentally, we could have been just a little bit stronger but I’m really proud of the boys,” Maciel said. “I think they played with heart, given the conditions. ... It’s a tough loss for us, but I could not have asked them to do any more, they worked really hard.”

Today’s second semifinal at Mayo-Thompson Stadium will be between Springdale and Springdale Har-Ber at noon. Har-Ber defeated Conway while Springdale defeated Little Rock Catholic in Friday’s quarterfinals.
