Kevin Lowe had to pick a Sides.

The question for Santa Fe Preparatory's fullback was: Should he pass to freshman Graham or his junior brother, McCall?

Lowe was in a no-lose proposition, so he let fly a 50-yard bomb from his right leg and watched what happened in the 47th minute of the opening round of the Class A-AAA State Boys Soccer Tournament against Socorro at Brennand Field on Friday.

It was McCall Sides who chased down the deep ball with the Warrior defense giving chase, and his one-touch shot to the right of goalkeeper Kenneth DeCosta was the deciding goal in a 2-1 Blue Griffins win.

Prep, the tournament's seventh seed, advances to a Thursday quarterfinal against No. 2 Bosque School at 11:30 a.m. at Rio Rancho High School.

Lowe said he didn't identify either Sides as his intended target, just that he knew one of them would come up with the ball.

"I just knew we needed another goal, so I kicked it up hoping to hit Graham or McCall," Lowe said. "The wind was blowing this way (into his face), so the ball kind of curved into McCall, and he got it, kicked it and we got the goal."

The score completed a rally from a 1-0 deficit that occurred within the first two minutes of first touch. While the schedule indicated that the match started at 4 p.m. sharp, the Blue Griffins (12-7) set their watches to start playing at 4:05 p.m.

By that point, Socorro forward Erik Garcia put a scare into the home side and a charge of electricity into his team. Within seconds of the opening whistle, Garcia streaked free into the penalty box and fired a shot to the right of the goal.

Two minutes later, he came back, dribbled through four Prep defenders on the left side of the goal and whipped the ball past 'keeper Danny Quinn for the early lead for No. 10 Socorro.

Then the alarm went off for the Blue Griffins.

"The first five minutes, I think we realized, 'Hey, we're on grass,' " Prep head coach Hersch Wilson said, alluding to his team's practices in Prep Gymnasium the previous two days because of snow and cold temperatures.

"Then we were like, 'Look how good they (the Warriors) are! Watch number 12 (Garcia)! See if he can score!' "

Momentum — and possession — slowly seeped toward the other side of the pitch, and the Sides brothers were almost impossible for Socorro's defenders to mark.

In the fifth minute, McCall Sides right-footed a shot over the Warriors' goal, and a minute later hit Garcia in the chest with other try. McCall Sides' next opportunity came in the 24th minute as he dribbled down the right side of the field, and was looking for a brother-to-brother combination.

"He was pretty closed off by one of the center-backs," McCall Sides said. "I just decided to shoot it because I've made goals like that in my club season."

From the extreme right side, McCall hammered a right-footer to the left of DeCosta. The ball ricocheted off the left post and into the net for a 1-1 knot.

Then as the temperature, which reached the mid-40s, dipped into the 30s with the help of a 15 mph wind, the Blue Griffins warmed up.

Graham Sides opened the second half with a 30-yard floater that DeCosta jumped for to keep out of the goal two minutes after McCall's Sides' go-ahead goal. Grayson Osgood dribbled into the box, and fired a shot to the left of the goal two minutes later. Prep had 11 second-half shots, compared to two for Socorro.

Still, the Warriors (7-12) gave their opponent one more scare in the 73rd minute when Bryan Melanson hit Garcia in full stride down the left sideline. Garcia's 20-yard missile found the back of the net, but the side judge ruled he was offside.

The Blue Griffins make their first foray into the tournament's second week in three years, and they find the defending A-AAA champion Bobcats awaiting them. Bosque School took care of Prep 7-0 on Sept. 12 as the Blue Griffins were starting a 1-5 slump.

McCall Sides believes his team has improved greatly since that match.

"Our passing has improved a lot since then," McCall Sides said. "And our team plays really well on turf. It's more like our surface here, because the grass is so short, especially at the end of the season. We do need to work on defending because on turf, you can measure the bounces wrong."

Contact James Barron at 986-3045 or jbarron@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog, the Read Barron, at thereadbarron.com.