If waiting one day short of a year would make most people a patient person, what would waiting 13 years make someone?

For Glendale Ironwood boy's soccer coach Tim Beck, his 13-year wait made him extremely appreciative, and it also made him a state champion coach again.

On Saturday, the 30-year coach watched his team complete the postseason with a 3-0 win over district rival Peoria Sunrise Mountain in the Class 5A state championship at Greenway High School.

And while the title was an incredible seventh one for Beck at the school, the last one came all the way back in 2011.

“We’ve been close a number of times. They’re all to be cherished. It’s not easy. It’s a long season and a long journey.”

Beck continued.

“We’ve been back since, but we got beat by better teams and we just had bad luck a couple of times but everyone’s good, everyone plays club. There are no pushovers anymore.”

But this time, he and his boys had no intentions of extending the drought, after losing last year’s championship match 4-1 to Phoenix Horizon.

This was made abundantly clear by Eagles’ senior Edgar O’Campo, who scored the game’s first goal with what would prove to be the game winner.

O’Campo gathered a loose ball off a corner kick, beating Mustangs’ goalie Mason Turney, just over 10 minutes into the match for a 1-0 lead.

“It was always going to be us. We were nervous at the beginning, but we were ready for this game. We were the No. 1 seed. Last year when we lost, I cried so much. I am just glad we are state champs now.

The match would remain 1-0 until just 4:13 remained in the first half when Bryan Romero re-directed a throw in from Ben Rouse into the Sunrise Mountain net for a 2-0 advantage.

In the second half, a lot of chippy play by both squads overshadowed some great defense by Ironwood, who would go on to flex its collective muscles and leave no doubt about the outcome.

“We have depth, we have power, we have technique, and the boys had the desire to not let happen what happened last year happen again this year,” Beck added.

The third and final goal of the contest was tallied by sophomore Javier Valle, who gathered yet another nice throw in by Rouse and stuffed it by Turney less than 10 minutes into the second half but putting the match effectively out of reach.

Sunrise Mountain coach Erik Anderson was pleased with his team’s effort but not pleased with how the match was officiated both ways.

“I think the referees didn’t do a good job of controlling the game and that’s what got to (his team). This is a state championship game and you got to control things. Coach Beck is my friend and was in the same boat as me, we were both saying you got to call this stuff.”

There were numerous stops in play, and a total of seven yellow cards and one red card were issued, marring what was initially a very tight contest.