Janesville Gazette photo by Angela Major. Used with permission.
Get Fired Up Comets Soccer Fans! DDHS looks to win its third WIAA Boys Soccer State Title later this week.
The Comets (24-1-2) will play Seymour (16-8-4) at 1:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 4 at KOHLER Engines Stadium at Uihlein Soccer Park in Milwaukee (7101 W Good Hope Rd, Milwaukee, WI).
The winner will play in the championship game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, against the winner of Mount Horeb (17-5-1) vs. Rice Lake (18-6-2). (see tournament schedule here)
Mount Horeb beat Rice Lake last year for the tournament title. Mount Horeb is ranked No. 3 in Wisconsin.
The Comets fell to Whitnall in the sectional semifinal in 2015. The team has taken a “state or bust” mentality this year after feeling the sting of losing in the playoffs, coach Mike Marse said.
After cruising through the regional and playoffs this season, the Comets return to the Division 3 state tourney for the first time since winning the title in 2014. They are ranked No. 1 in the state. Seymour and Rice Lake are unranked.
In the 2014 state tourney, DDHS defeated Rice Lake 6-1 in the semifinal before beating Mount Horeb 3-1 in the championship game.
The Comets won the Division 2 crown in 2000, the school’s first-ever team state championship. DDHS got by Grafton 2-1 before defeating Notre Dame High School 2-1 for the title.
The team has finished second in state four times — once in 2005 and in 1994, 1996 and 1998.
The Comets — the Southern Lakes Conference champions — are an offensive juggernaut this season, having outscored opponents 136-14. The team’s only loss was a 2-1 defeat at the feet of Stevens Point, a much larger school that finished 14-2-2- overall. DDHS also twice defeated rival Elkhorn, a state qualifier in Division 2, twice this season.
DDHS is led this year by senior Tigrio Huerta, who is third in the state in scoring with 98 points (36 goals, 26 assists). Five other Comets players — Jason Cano, Pablo Guzman Martinez, Gerardo Rodriquez, Zeus Huerta and Israel Montelongo each have 10 or more goals this season. In the net, Ricardo Huerta has made 117 saves with a .893 save percentage. He and the defenders in front of him have held 17 opponents scoreless this season, including a stretch of nine games in a row, two of which were in regional playoff action.
In Sectional play, DDHS defeated Grafton — a ranked team to begin the season — 5-1. In the sectional championship on Oct. 29, DDHS struck early and often, defeating second-ranked Waukesha Catholic Memorial 4-1 to earn the return trip to state.
MORE ON THE STATE TOURNEY FROM THE WIAA:
STATE TOURNAMENTS LIVE ON THE WEB: The semifinals of all four divisions of the WIAA Boys Soccer State Tournament will be streamed live on the WIAA.TV portal of the NFHS Network on a subscription basis. To purchase a subscription to the live programming for only $9.95 per month, log-on to www.wiaa.tv or www.nfhsnetwork.com and click on the subscription image in the middle of the page. Archived streams of the games will be available on demand on the NFHS Network 72 hours after the tournament without requirement of a subscription. The finals will be streamed on Fox Sports Go with cable system authentication.
FINALS ON FS WISCONSIN NETWORKS: Watch the broadcast of the WIAA Boys Soccer State finals Saturday on either FS Wisconsin or the FS Wisconsin Alternate Channel. The Divisions 1, 3 and 4 games will be aired live on FS Wisconsin at 11 a.m., 1:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively. The Division 2 championship final will be aired on the FS Wisconsin Alternate Channel at 7 p.m. Check local cable listings for the channel in your area.
THE DIVISION 3 FIELD: Defending champion Mount Horeb returns to State for the third straight season and for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, which accounts for all six of its previous appearances. The Vikings won the Division 2 championship in 2011 and were runners-up in 2012. They added a Division 3 runner-up finish in 2014. The Vikings advance to State this year via a 1-0 shutout over McFarland in the final hosted by Edgewood. They tied Sauk Prairie for the title in the North Division of the Badger Conference. Last year’s runner-up Rice Lake qualifies for State for the third straight season, which also accounts for the Warriors’ overall number of appearances. The Warriors return to the State semifinals comes after a 7-1 romp over Waupaca in the sectional final held at Rice Lake. They finished third in the Big Rivers Conference in 2016. Delavan-Darien qualifies for State for the eighth time and for the second time in the last three seasons. The Comets won the Division 3 championship in 2014 and the Division 2 title in 2000. In addition, they have four runner-up finishes on their ledger. Each of those came in Division 2 in 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2005. They ousted Catholic Memorial 4-1 in the East Troy Sectional final to advance to the State semifinals. The Comets are the champions of the Southern Lakes Conference. Seymour will experience the State Tournament for the first time, advancing to the semifinals via a 4-3 shootout following a 2-2 tie with Fox Valley Lutheran. They placed runner-up to Menasha in the standings of the Bay Conference during the regular season.
FOLLOW STATE MEET ON SOCIAL MESSAGING: Receive updates of the State Boys Soccer Tournament on the WIAA State Tournament Twitter account @wiaawistate with the hashtag #wiaabsoccer. Also like us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram at wiaawi, and add us on Snapchat at wiaawis.
INFO FOR DDHS STUDENTS
Students, we would like to invite all of you to get a bus ride and ticket to the Boys’ Soccer State Tournament Game this Friday. The bus will be leaving school at noon, this Friday, and return about 4:30 pm. The cost is $10, which covers the $8 cost of admission and $2 for the round-trip bus ride. If you owe student fees, those must be paid prior to attending this activity.
A permission slip can be picked up (before or after school only) in the athletic or main office starting Monday, and is due back (with money) to the athletic or main office before 3 p.m. this Wednesday, Nov. 3. Any student riding the student bus will be excused from classes Friday afternoon.
If a parent would like to drive you to the game, we will excuse those absences only with a written note from a parent. Phone calls from parents excusing their child to attend the soccer game will not be excused as we need written permission due to liability.
If you are not attending the game, the Department of Public Instruction states that we must have a full-day of school, so be prepared to remain on campus for instruction.