In the City of Champions, Duncanville soccer is proving to be the school’s next elite team

When January and March roll around and football and basketball seasons come to an end at Duncanville, Nuno Passos and his team field the same questions each year.

“People ask us, ‘Hey, how are you guys doing? When does your season start?’ And it’s like, we’re in season. We haven’t lost the game,” Passos said.

At a school like Duncanville that has won 29 state championships since 1976 — primarily in football, basketball and track and field — his soccer team is rarely the center of attention, regardless of the success they’re having on the field.

There’s more overlap between the other sports. Football players run track in the spring. Some basketball players play on the football team, too. But with the UIL soccer season in Texas running from December through April, the soccer team is on a different timeline.

But at a school known for dominance in most sports it plays, Duncanville’s soccer team is making a case for being the next elite program to come out of the City of Champions. Over the last decade, it’s been quietly building to reach this point — its first state tournament appearance since 1986 where it will face reigning champion Katy Seven Lakes and seek to win its second state title in program history.

Duncanville enters this weekend’s state tournament as a heavy underdog — an unfamiliar position for the school. But if it can come away with the upset of the year and one more win in the championship game a day later, it’ll prove it deserves to be recognized alongside its other programs that enter each season with the expectation of taking home the state’s top prize.

“I think we just got to the point this year where we said, if you want that spotlight, we’re going to have to break through,” Passos said. “There’s been a glass ceiling that’s just always kept us a little bit below. and I think we finally broke through the glass ceiling and now is a great opportunity for people to see that we have a great soccer program as well.”

A decade in the making

As the No. 3 seed coming out of District 11-6A, Duncanville is a Cinderella team, advancing six rounds deep to the state tournament.

But when you look at their history, the last decade has built up to this moment.

Duncanville has made the postseason every year since the 2014 season (the 2020 postseason was canceled due to COVID-19). It’s reached the third round or further four times and has won a playoff game every year but one in that stretch. It also has four 20-win seasons, including three in the last four years.

“We’ve been really, really good probably the last 10 years here, and the lights just aren’t shined as bright because our other programs are just so dynamic and successful,” Passos said.

The program’s success in recent years has started to resemble that of the 1980s Duncanville teams when the school reached the state tournament three times in four years, winning state the last year in 1986.

Expectations were high for the team entering the season, as it ranked No. 6 among Dallas-area teams in this year’s preseason 6A rankings. After surviving its first 10 games of the season without a loss, district losses to Skyline and Waxahachie took the program by surprise and caused it to drop out of the rankings and plummet in the district standings.

That’s where the team adopted its underdog mindset, entering the postseason knowing it would have to upset in every game to advance. Wins over Pflugerville Weiss, Rockwall, Garland, The Woodlands and Cypress Woods ultimately set it up for a David vs. Goliath matchup with Katy Seven Lakes on Friday.

“We’re pretty excited to be the first to go to state in 38 years,” senior Nathanael Zozaya said. “We’re happy we got here, but we’re putting our mindset to something bigger.”

Seven Lakes is appearing in its third consecutive state tournament appearance and coming off its first state title in program history. It enters the tournament with a 23-1-2 record and is the heavy favorite to win it all.

On top of facing the toughest team in the tournament, Duncanville (20-2-3) is representing Class 6A Region II, which is known as the worst boys soccer region in the classification. A Region II team has not won state at the Class 6A level since 2017 when Jesuit won before the regions shifted. Jesuit is now in Region I with the majority of the top 6A boys soccer talent from Dallas-Fort Worth.

“At this point, everybody’s just a champion,” Passos said. “Everybody’s won their regional bracket. In soccer, the ball is round. It’s going to roll both ways. You’re going to need a bounce. You’re going to need a roll. It’s going to have to roll your way to come out on top.”

Luck on their side

Through Duncanville’s last decade of success, Passos said it’s felt like the luck hasn’t been in his team’s favor.

“It’s always been something: a goal that wasn’t counted, a goal that was counted, a bounce, a call, a missed opportunity, a bad decision,” he said. “Every year it’s always been having to explain this is what happened, that’s what happened. This year, it’s just all coming together at the right time.”

Throughout the team’s postseason run, luck has been on their side. That became clear in the regional semifinal game against The Woodlands when Zozaya scored a stunning, game-tying bicycle kick goal with under a minute left, ultimately sending the match to a penalty shootout. Just a day later, goalie Jesus Diaz made a key save in the regional final against Cypress Woods on a penalty shot to secure the 1-0 victory.

“We’re playing well at the right time of year,” Passos said. “There’s belief. There’s commitment. There’s sacrifice. We’re playing our best soccer.”

Duncanville will need to carry some of that luck into the state tournament in Georgetown for their match at 5 p.m. Friday against Seven Lakes.

If they can pull off the upset, they’ll reach the state final for the third time in program history where they’ll have the chance to add another trophy to the school’s already-packed case and remind the Duncanville community that even though it’s already a City of Champions, their program shouldn’t be overlooked.

“It would be just a tremendous accomplishment for these kids to be able to put Duncanville back on the map in soccer,” Passos said. “It’s just a blessing that the kids are finally getting the spotlight that they deserve.”

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