No. 1 Salpointe beat No. 16 Thunderbird 8-1 Tuesday night at home in the first round of the 4A state playoffs to improve to 13-1 in ranking matches. The Lancers will host No. 9 Flowing Wells (9-4-1) in the quarterfinal round on Saturday at 2 p.m. after the Caballeros upset No. 8 ALA-Gilbert North in overtime (4-3) in their first round match.

Salpointe beat Flowing Wells 5-1 in region play on Jan. 24 as part of a scoring run of 64 goals scored against five given up since the team lost to Tucson High 3-2 on Jan. 9. That comes out o over six goals scored a match. Junior Jose Hernandez got things going against Thunderbird with a goal less than two minutes in and sophomore Marco Torres scored what would ultimately be the winning goal in the 18th minute.

Hernandez picked up his second goal of the night in the 25th minute and sophomore Leo Gutierrez made it 4-0 five minutes into the second half on a penalty kick. Anthony Granillo made it 5-0 four minutes later and Jose Luis Cuevas found Gutierrez on a corner kick and his header found the net in the 54th minute for a 6-0 lead.

Thunderbird junior Brian Costa cut the lead down to 6-1 in the 60th minute but Cuevas made it 7-1 in the 62nd and sophomore Mario Zuluaga scored off of a corner with 6.5 seconds left for the 8-1 final.

Thunderbird ended the season with a 7-6 record and the team missed the playoffs last year but lost to Salpointe 5-0 in the first round in 2021. The Lancers earned their ninth state title last year and the third since 2019. Wolfgang Weber has a state-leading 737 career wins.