Senior forward Luke Taylor led the sixth-ranked Horizon Honors boys soccer team (8-1-2) to a 3-0 playoff victory Tuesday night against American Leadership Academy (8-4-1). 

Taylor’s first goal came from a crossed ball by sophomore halfback Will Armstrong on a corner kick.  He one-touched the ball into the back of the net with 19 minutes left in the first half.

“We played down the channels well,” Taylor said. “They had two fullbacks that were out of place and we really took advantage of that.”

With four minutes left in the second half, Taylor launched the ball from close to midfield hitting the crossbar scoring his second goal and put the Eagles up by three.

“I was going for the shot the whole time. I just never thought it was going to go in,” Taylor said.

Even with a strong offensive performance by the Eagles, the game started out slow. Possession of the ball was back and forth between teams until about 24 minutes left in the first half when the Eagles took control.

“I felt like it was a little bit of ‘boot ball’ at the beginning, which is not what we do, so we need to connect the ball a little bit better,” Horizon Honors head coach Bobby Smith said.

The second goal came from freshman forward Heath Leonard with a breakaway where he drove the ball past the Patriots goalie with 10:51 left in the second half.

“My focus was on scoring,” Leonard said. “I knew we needed that goal to confirm our win and that’s what I did.”

There’s no doubt this was an aggressive match by both sides with a lot of foul calls for both teams. Two Eagles players, Jorge Cesin and Taylor, received yellow cards forcing them to be subbed out. 

“It was aggressive, not through the players unfortunately, but rather lack of control from the adults, whether it be us coaches or the officials,” Smith said.

Emotions were high as players from both teams were verbally sparring at the end of the match.

The Eagles will face third-ranked Coronado (10-2, 8-0) in Scottsdale at 2 p.m. Saturday. 

“Going into Saturday it has to be a better performance than today," Smith said. "I don’t think we played to our potential. We are trying to go the furthest this school has ever gone in playoffs, which will mean a win this Saturday.”