Yuma 19U soccer one win from national title game

A win or tie for RSL AZ 03 Quintana on Saturday sends the boys club soccer team to Presidents Cup finale

GREENSBORO, N.C. ( KYMA, KECY-TV ) - Erick Mejia scored on a penalty kick late in the first half for the Yuma 19U RSL AZ 03 Quintana soccer club against Team America out of Virginia.

Both teams entered the contest 1-0 in round robin play in the final four team format in the U.S. Youth National Presidents Cup.

For Mejia, a graduate of San Luis High School and current member of the Arizona Western men's soccer team, it was his third goal of the tournament.

The team from Yuma hung on to that lead late into the second half and with two minutes remaining in regulation, Team America tied the score. The game ended in a 1-1 tie and sends both teams into a do or die scenario on Saturday morning. Both Yuma and Virginia are 1-0-1 through two games, the team from Illinois is 1-1 and Louisiana, who Yuma defeated on Thursday 5-2, is 0-2.

"You just have to short memory when it comes to that," Head coach Jerry Quintana said. "You know, whatever happened, you know, it wasn't a loss. It was a tie and it was even though we didn't have our best game we still got the outcome that we wanted. We still tried and, you know, just to again have a short memory forward to the next game."

Yuma needs a win ot a tie on Saturday morning against Illinois to take one step closer to their ultimate goal, bringing home a national title to Yuma.