Bustmante helps save the day again in Asheboro triumph

ASHEBORO — Gotham City has one superhero in Batman. Metropolis has one superhero in Superman and New York has one superhero in Spiderman. The Asheboro High School soccer team has two superheroes.

With AHS’ Cam Letterlough leading the nation in scoring, senior Diego Bustamante has “quietly” gone on to an incredible senior season. That season got even better Saturday night as Bustamante broke a scoreless tie with a second-half goal and then assisted on another as the Blue Comets recorded a 3-0 victory over East Lincoln, sending AHS into the West Regional finals, which is scheduled for Tuesday night at AHS. 

The victory was the 22nd straight for the Blue Comets, who took a 26-2 record into the regional championship match against AC Reynolds.

Bustamante, who is 33rd in the state in goals (33) and third in the state in assists (31), was a key performer in the win. Nothing surprising there. He’s been a key performer all season and is not considered a sidekick in the least. He’s been much more than what Robin is to Batman.

“He’s second in the West in scoring behind Cam, 19th in the nation in assists, I wouldn’t call Busta a Robin, I would say we have two Batmans,” AHS coach Nick Arroyo said of Bustamante and Letterlough. “Actually, we’ll say we have Batman and Superman. Without him, this team doesn’t function the same.”

Bustamante may not be the tallest (maybe 5-foot-3), but he certainly plays big.

“He's not the tallest player on the field, he’s literally half the size of some of those defenders, but what he does with his body is like nothing else you see someone his size do,” said Arroyo after the win Saturday night. “The way he moves these guys off the ball, and he makes them fall half of the time when they are trying to defend him, makes it hard to defend him.”

Bustamante said size has never been a problem.

“Many people say I'm short, but I don’t let that get to me,” Bustamante said. “I just play my game and move the ball around. I’m not scared of anything.”

Against East Lincoln, it was the Mustangs who carried the play early as most of the first half was spent in the Blue Comets’ defensive zone. AHS started tilting the field by the end of the first half.

“The first half, we almost came out not shy, but we weren't playing our game yet,” Arroyo said. “Once they got into the flow, we regained possession most of the time. I told them at halftime we had to get back to the simple soccer we play and they executed that in the second half.”

Bustamante broke the scoreless tie against East Lincoln (22-3-2) when he took a pass along the right sideline, stayed wide before breaking toward the goal and putting a shot into the net from a difficult angle for the 1-0 lead with 32:18 to play.

“The ball coming down the side finds Bustamante wide and as he’s taken it in and I’m just sitting there with my hands on my knees, ‘come on, come on, come on,’ ” Arroyo said. “When you see the ball hit the side netting, it's like a relief. OK, we broke the seal. Now it’s time for the rest to follow.”

Bustamante, who scored 28 goals with 31 assists in his first three years, said the goal helped the team settle down.

“I was dribbling to the box and saw the goalie out of the way and saw a shot and just took it,” he said of the goal which gave a large crowd at Lee J. Stone Stadium a reason to erupt. “It seems like we were then more relaxed and it gave us some momentum.”

Bustamante’s beautiful long pass from the right side to the box was headed in by Carlos Gonzalez about eight minutes later.

Letterlough, who scored his 74th of the season on a penalty kick with 9:46 to play, said Bustamante has been a key all season.

“He’s an amazing player,” Letterlough said. “He has been the main solution to the team. I love playing with him. We communicate and have that connection  with each other.”
Batman and Superman indeed.