After two overtimes and winning after a 6-5 shootout against Rincon on Thursday, there was a chance that the Nogales High Apaches soccer team would be too fatigued Friday to give a Sahuarita squad that had two days rest a tough time.

Nogales High’s Luis J. Garcia (14) battles for posession with Sahuarita’s Andres Solorza during the Apaches’ 6-0 victory Friday night in Nogales. Photo / William Wilczewski

When the smoke settled, though, it was the young Mustangs, without much depth on their bench, that didn’t stand much of a chance Friday in a 6-0 drubbing by Nogales.

Although Hector Miranda began the scoring, it was Alexis Medina, who netted the next two for Nogales.

“Today we came out, we blew up and think we sent a message to a lot of teams�”especially in yesterday’s win against Rincon,” Medina said. “But I prefer the harder games. It’s more intense.”

Jakciel Lozano then gave the Apaches a 4-0 lead before halftime, when Nogales had more than twice the shots on net than Sahuarita.

After halftime, Marco Escobar and Jesus Martinez added to the tally. Marinez’s goal was on penalty kick with less than nine minutes left in regulation.

It was a shot that Medina could have taken to get a hat trick, but gave to his teammate instead.

“(Medina) could have taken the penalty kick to get the hat trick, but I don’t tell players who’s taking the kick,” said Nogales coach Hugo Luna. “He wanted to take the kick, but I think the rest of the team pressured him to give it to Jesse (Martinez). I think Chino (Medina) did the unselfish thing and said, ‘You know what, (Martinez) was going to score (on that penalty) play, so he can take the penalty kick and put it away.’ It goes to show he’s unselfish. Plus, he had two other quality opportunities that he just couldn’t put away.”

That was something Sahuarita coach Nick Byrne was likely grateful for.

“We’re injury-plagued, but it was nice to get to this level for our team,” he said. “We felt the kids gave it their full effort, but we’re not as deep as we typically are.

“We were happy with the second half,” Byrne added. “You learn from these things. We’ll hopefully come back strong.”

The Mustangs dropped to 3-4-2, while Nogales jumped to 5-4, including preseason tournament action.

“Sahuarita, even though they’re 3A (in enrollment numbers), usually they have a tough team,” Luna said. “Last year they had a very tough team. I didn’t know what to expect this year from them. We’ve never played them.”

Luna was glad with the outcome�”and even gladder to see his team not take a step backward after the close call against Rincon the day before.

“I was hoping they wouldn’t have an emotional letdown from last night, but obviously they didn’t,” he said. “They were affected physically, but fortunately for us we scored three goals in 15 minutes, then our bench came in and got a bunch of minutes to take pressure off our starters.

“I want some of these guys to get experience,” he added. “It’s good to get their confidence up.”

That confidence came for Escobar and Martinez after scoring late in the game.

“The main difference between this team and the teams I’ve had in other years is that we don’t have superstars,” Luna said. “We don’t have kids who want to own the team �- on their own. They’re disciplined. They play tough �- and all have good attitudes. In the past we’ve had boatloads of talent but could never come together (as a team). This year, we have good chemistry.”

The Apaches chemistry will be tested today through Saturday when they compete in the Sabino Tournament.