Soccer: Thomas Jefferson outlasts Decatur in penalties
Published 9:48 am Friday, November 7, 2025
Last season, Thomas Jefferson High School Athletic Director Courtney McCurry was standing on the touchline coaching the girls soccer team as their search for a head coach took so long, it went into the season.
Flip the calendar to 2025, and the Thomas Jefferson Raiders are one game away from the 3A state girls championship. The Raiders needed to get past the Decatur Gators, a team that had been reeling in their current form, but is always dangerous. The Raiders and Gators couldn’t be separated through 90 minutes of play, but Alondra Corrales put the Raiders closer than they have ever been as they won on penalties 5-4 on Nov. 6.
Corrales, a senior defender, walked up to the penalty spot, in the wind and rain, to an unfamiliar position. Thomas Jefferson was level on penalities 4-4, but Corrales didn’t know what her goal would mean.
“She didn’t even know,” Head Coach Sydney Banyai said. “She’ll remember that for a long time, senior year, against Decatur. It was awesome.”
She shot it into the top right corner and just turned around, then when the final whistle blew, she had to pick up her jaw off the floor. Complete shock went over Corrales as she was swarmed by her teammates inside the 18-yard box.
“I was nervous, I had so many emotions. I was just telling myself, ‘Get it in the back of the net.’ That moment when the referee called the game, I literally never thought I’d be able to do that,” Corrales said.
That feeling of elation would seem distant for Thomas Jefferson after Decatur took a 1-0 lead inside of the first 10 minutes. Amani Hussen rifled a shot into the upper righthand corner of the goal from over 18 yards away.
“I felt like it was still zero-zero. We were still out there, we were good. We knew what we had to do and we did it,” Jazmyne DuBose said.
The Raider defense stepped up big to hold Decatur to one goal in the third matchup between these two sides. “There was no head hanging. They had a positive mentality through and through,” Banyai said.
The Gators enjoyed the lead for 25 minutes before Athena Amor Katsaros was fouled just across midfield. She took the free kick and sent a high arching ball into the penalty area. Decatur keeper Madison Bell mishandled the ball and Jazmyne DuBose followed up the shot to tie the game.
The two sides went into halftime deadlocked 1-1, and neither side would score a goal for the next 55 minutes until the penalty shootout.
Decatur had the 2024 NPSL Player of the Year in Kaihea Tuifua, and a young freshman in Jordynn Koria was tasked in slowing down the 30-goal scorer from a season ago. Koria didn’t make life easy for Tuifua, and when Koria was moved to center back, that solidified the Raider defense.
“Jordynn is silent and sneaky, she has such great field vision. She doesn’t wait for anybody to tell her where to go. She just does it. She’s a great player. I would throw her anywhere on this field and let her go,” Banyai said.
On the other side of the field, Decatur also had a freshman defender making plays in Laruny Suazo.
The two sides were trapped in a dance that meant one of their seasons would come to a close and the other would be one game away from the state tournament.
Decatur shot first in the penalty shootout, and none other than Tuifua would shoot first. She was face to face with Anna Vincent, a basketball player by trade and someone who didn’t start in the beginning of the year due to an injury. But she also had never played soccer before.
“I don’t know how she did it. You put an experienced keeper in that position they might not make those saves either. I think all the time she had been putting in at practice and working on becoming a better goalkeeper has really turned our season around,” Banyai said.
Tuifua made her first shot, but in the penalty shootout, Vincent would make two saves and give Thomas Jefferson life.
“She’s been a huge benefit to us, we are so proud of her,” DuBose said.
“She is so amazing and so brave, we would not be the same team without her. Without a doubt,” Corrales said.
”She got us here,” DuBose added.
DuBose walked up to take her penalty following the Tuifua make. DuBose did her job and scored in her first opportunity.
“I didn’t know I was going to be first. I had to lock in. But I knew I had it in the bag,” DuBose said
Both teams missed their second attempts, with Vincent saving her first penalty of her career. Hussen (Decatur) and Callie Moore (TJ) both converted their chances and the two sides were level heading into the fourth shots. Laruny Suazo made her attempt and Malieta Redmond hit the cross bar on her shot, meaning Decatur was one goal away from a win on its fifth shot. Samantha Tovar stepped up, took aim on goal. She sailed her shot over the cross bar and Thomas Jefferson had a lifeline. Gillian Mika Aguinaldo converted her shot to tie up the penalty shootout after the miss.
Gabriella Smith (Decatur) and Yarelli Quinones Verdin of Thomas Jefferson kept the score tied. Senior Decatur defender Ava Bowers, who had been one of the best Decatur players all season long, just mis-hit her shot over the goal, leaving the window open for Alondra Corrales to win it.
Corrales had told Banyai she wanted to take a penalty right before the shootout. So Banyai put her higher than she would have if she didn’t, but not too high. Corrales put her shot out of the reach of Bell and was not aware of what she had just done.
“Confidence is something I had struggled with so much. That was one of the best feelings. I had so many emotions, it was amazing,” Corrales said.
Thomas Jefferson heads to Mount Tahoma on Nov. 8 to take on Silas in an all encompassing winner to state matchup. If the Raiders lose, their season ends at Mount Tahoma. A win sends Thomas Jefferson to state for the first time since 2006, and it’s an opportunity too good to pass up.
“I’m so excited for them, I could not be more proud. There were tears from everyone out there (tonight). They are such a special group. We are so young but have our amazing seniors and upperclassmen. They are everything,” Banyai said.
