Aurora – Miguel Rosales entered the “Matrix” on Sept. 29, 2005.
During a typically fierce Centennial League showdown against rival Cherry Creek, the Buffaloes’ goalie was faced with a perfectly struck ball that was heading directly into the upper corner of his net.
Smoky Hill coach Danny Winsor still remembers the sequence vividly, which seemed to contradict the laws of space and time. The stop-frame image of Rosales elevating himself, prone, about 5 feet off the ground and nicking the ball aside to preserve a 1-0 victory is one of the best saves he can recall.
“You don’t teach that,” Winsor said.
The two-time All-Colorado senior goalie has done the improbable for two seasons, guiding the Class 5A Buffaloes to a state championship his sophomore season and an overtime loss in the final last year.
Long shots, dangerous crosses, close-range blasts born out of chaos – Rosales is an odds-on favorite to stop them all. He is a game-changer and a leader, and he speaks about his abilities in the simplest terms rather than the superb.
“I hear a whole bunch of people want to score on me,” Rosales said last week as the second-ranked Buffaloes finished practice. “I picture myself as just another goalkeeper. I’m not Superman or anything.
“It’s not impossible to score on me.”
Tell that to Winsor, who during a practice last season fired a curving ball that had Rosales beat to his upper left corner. Somehow, Rosales leaped straight up, back and tipped it to safety.
Rosales robbed Cherry Creek all-state senior Aric Goodman, now a kicker on the University of Wyoming football team, on the doorstep in last year’s state semifinal matchup, shutting out the Bruins to lead the rebuilt Buffaloes back to a final few expected them to make.
But the final is where Rosales was born in 2004. After a so-so start to his sophomore season, the lanky 6-footer suddenly became a wall, stretching like Gumby and stabbing shots aside. In the cold snow of that championship victory over Grandview, Rosales made four saves in the shutout, including a nice tip of Kyle Borkowski’s long-range drive.
Although beaten twice in last season’s championship loss to Fort Collins, Rosales minimized the damage in a poor first half by making five saves to prevent Fort Collins from extending its 1-0 lead. Seven minutes after the Buffaloes equalized in the second half, Rosales made a fantastic save on a looping shot by Ryan O’Connell to send the game into overtime.
“The state final is where he showed up and proved to us that he wants it more than us,” said Tony Rosales, Miguel’s younger brother and teammate. “Now we got to help him for another one because he wants it so bad.”
Rosales could have forgone his senior year and taken a drastically different course after being offered a professional contract this summer in Mexico. Rosales trained for two weeks in front of coaches from Chivas Guadalajara, one of Mexico’s most storied clubs.
Rosales said a contract to play for Chivas’ lower-level team was presented, but he balked for fear of not finishing high school or attending college. The University of Denver, San Francisco and Cal State Fullerton have shown heavy interest.
But the next stop may be temporary. Rosales seems to have the raw talent necessary to work beyond college, whether in Major League Soccer or another country. Grandview coach and former standout goalie Bruce Brown compares Rosales to one of his former greats, Matt Jordan, now with the Colorado Rapids.
What does Rosales think? Since bragging isn’t his calling card, he only speaks of getting better and stronger. He is quick to point out his talent isn’t born of luck, but he knows he’s often at the mercy of the luck of the game.
“It’s a sport,” he said pragmatically. “Sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t. It makes me feel good, of course, because of the effort and work I put in to make that save.”
Especially when that save requires Rosales to break the rules of space and time.
