A Douglas forward had just crossed the ball near the goal, and Rieffer tipped it away, only to see the carom fall on the toe of another onrushing Bulldog. Buena defender David Sainz was next to Rieffer trying to help the Colts hold on to their 2-1 lead.
Rieffer scrambled after the next shot, and landed chest-first on the ball as time expired.
  
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“I thought there was like, five minutes left,” Rieffer said. “I kicked it out and the buzzer rang.”
Douglas scored early in the game on a free kick by Tony Lopez with just more than 21 minutes to play in the half. The Colts came back to tie it at 15:30, scoring on a pass to the middle from Cohen Faucett to J.C. Henson.
Buena took the lead with two minutes to play in the half when Ross Adeli passed to Decklan Fulton, who shot a bullet to the back corner of the net.
“It’s a great feeling,” Buena head coach Medhat Abuhantash said. “We played the same tonight as we did against Nogales.”
Buena scrimmaged Nogales last Friday and shut out the team 5-0, even though an official score wasn’t kept. The Colts scored four of their goals in the first half, and Adeli finished the night with two goals, Ruben Teran with one, Fulton with one and Sebastian Ariza with one.
Abuhantash said his team was agressive and challenged every ball, making it a good start to the season. He was also glad to see his team play in similar fashion in the home opener after the team’s 2-0 loss to Salpointe on Monday night in opening play of the Brandon Bean tournament.
“Salpointe did what we did tonight,” Abuhantash said. “They came out aggressive, and I told the kids tonight that coming out aggressive was the only way to get (Douglas) off their game, being able to anticipate.”
Both of Salpointe’s goals came early in the first half, but Buena held the always dominant Lancers in the second half.
“We knew after Salpointe what mistakes we needed to fix to get the victory today,” Rieffer said. “And we came in and made those changes.”
Buena had seven shots on goal in the second half of the game against Douglas, but couldn’t manage to put any of them into the net. Adeli came close with six minutes to play on a head shot the goal keeper, Meoqui Skinner, reached up and slapped away. Douglas threatened late in the game as time ticked away on shots my Ricky Smith and Ramon Acosta that sailed wide of the posts.
The Colts totaled 11 shots on goal Tuesday night, Henson with four Fulton with three, Teran with two and Adeli with two.
The team had five corner kicks and Rieffer finished with six saves.
“My teammates were the ones who did all the work today,” Rieffer said.
Buena continues in the Brandon Bean tournament Friday at Cienega in Tucson against Pusch Ridge at 10:30 a.m. and Palo Verde at 4:30 p.m.
