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SIERRA VISTA — After going more than two weeks without a goal, the Buena boys soccer team broke out in a  big way in its final game of the season Wednesday night.

Not long after the opening kickoff, the season’s leading scorer, senior Nikolai Horbarenko, bulldozed through the defense, broke into the clear and put it past the Sunnyside goalkeeper seconds into Buena’s 6-0 win on senior night.

“It was over pretty quick,” Horbarenko said of his 15th goal of the season. “I saw nobody going through so I made a quick dash and tried to beat everyone around. Used my left foot, it was nice.”

Horbarenko’s goal opened the floodgates and goals by Orlando Araiza, Scott Gregory, Ryan Fulton and two by Jason Li, including a perfectly placed open net goal from 30 yards with under five minutes to go, capped Buena’s fourth win of the season.

“It was a great last game,” Horbarenko said. “We played much better tonight, switching much better and making much more accurate passes. It was nice to see everybody try much harder, go much harder.”

According to the original schedule, tonight was supposed to be the Colts’ home and regular season finale, but the match with Cienega was canceled, leaving the Colts 4-7 on the season. 

Even had the Colts won that rematch against Cienega, the last team they had beaten on Jan. 11, it would not have been nearly enough to qualify them for state. It’s the first time in Horbarenko’s four years in the program that the Colts have not made it, an outcome made doubly painful by the team’s wealth of talented senior players including goalkeeper Tyler Wilson, who returned from a year spent playing for the Real Salt Lake youth team in Casa Grande.

On top of that, the Colts’ early season success was quickly shot down by a litany of close losses, including two 2-1 affairs with Desert View.

“It was very frustrating,” Horbarenko said. “They were all by only one goal, but it was good playing with people of such great caliber; such a great goalkeeper and the lower classmen, too.”

By the second half of the season, the toll of the close losses began to take their toll on the Colts, who lost six of their last eight, and before Thursday night, were outscored 10-0 in three straight losses.

“We had some unfavorable scheduling,” Buena assistant coach Martin Sindelar said. “Back in December we had three games in a row and we had that four-game block earlier this month. That was something that definitely didn’t play in our favor. But the ones we dropped,  we had one-goal games. We were right there, down to the wire and some we lost in overtime, so all in all, not a bad season — we were that close.”

Horbarenko, who has played 10 years in the Sierra Vista youth soccer program and still plays in the Tucson Soccer Academy, plans to attend either the University of Arizona or Northern Arizona University and hopes to latch on with a club team there. He hasn’t completely ruled out playing intercollegiate soccer next season.

“I’m not actively seeking, but I’m keeping an open mind, so we’ll see what happens,” Horbarenko said.

Seniors on the Buena roster included Danny Dunbar, Gregory, Bryce Jacboy, Christian Morales, Keith Oliver and Daniel Tranfaglia.

“It’s a great way to end it, great to see guys like Nikolai step up and win it,” Sindelar said. “It was a little disappointing we had senior night tonight instead of tomorrow, but we made the most of it and got the big win in our last game.”

Buena girls soccer

TUCSON — The Buena girls soccer team defeated Sunnyside in Tucson on Thursday night 2-0 to rest their case for a state playoff bid.

Buena’s first goal was started by a corner kick from Elissa Williams, who sent the ball into the box where Kelsea Sloss touched it to Prescilla Gonzales for the goal. The second goal was scored by Brooke Madden on an assist from Larissa Adams.

“Sunnyside caught us off-guard a little bit,” Buena head coach Marilyn Piduch said. “They are a kick and run team, played aggressive and it took us a while to realize what we had to do to settle ourselves down.”

Buena finished the regular season with a 9-3 mark in power point counting games. Once the result was posted Thursday night, the Colts had moved up from 21 to 18 on the Division I standings. 

The top 16 teams make the state tournament.

“We will be waiting anxiously for all the scores to be reported this weekend to find out if we made it into the state playoffs,” Piduch said.

If Buena doesn’t make state, the Colts will have the best record of any team not to have made the field, and a better record than four of the teams in front of them.

The state tournament begins on Wednesday at the homes of the higher seeds.

Herald/Review sports editor Matt Hickman can be reached at 515-4612 or by e-mail at sports@svherald.com.