Soccer team bounced out of playoffs
B.G. Guzman launches a penalty kick toward onrushing teammates during last week’s district playoff match against Toppenish.
The Huskies took an unexpected early exodus from post-season play as the team was upset by Quincy 3-1 in the consolation round of the District 2A tournament Saturday. Othello was the odds on favor to advance to state, but lost two of three matches on its home field.
Toppenish 2, Othello 1
Othello found itself fighting to stay alive in the tournament after getting bumped off by Toppenish at home on a blustery day May 12, having to put together back-to-back wins in the loser’s bracket to keep advancing.
“The Toppenish game was very frustrating. We had beaten them in overtime a couple of weeks ago and my guys thought they could do the same thing again,” coach Bernie Garza said. “But we didn’t come out ready to play.”
It was a tough pill to swallow as the Huskies dropped their first match this season on their home field.
“I don’t think we overlooked them,” Garza said. We just couldn’t score.”
The match was physical from the opening whistle, but few calls favored Othello.
“It was one of the worst officiated games this year. The young referee didn’t have a clue on what he was doing and that set the tone for the rest of the match,” Garza said. “He called a penalty kick against us at the 13-minute mark when Andres Mendoza jumped straight up to head a ball out and the Toppenish forward jumped into him and exaggerated a fall holding his head and screaming in pain.”
The referee said Mendoza had pushed the Toppenish player in the back in the 18- yard box and awarded the Wildcats a penalty kick that Luis Alcala put in the back of the right corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.
That was the only score of the first half.
Toppenish got on the scoreboard in the 64th minute of the match to go up 2-0 on Alcala’s second goal of the contest.
“He kick the ball high and with a curving manner, it headed straight to our goalkeeper who was attempting a jumping save,” Garza said. “But at the last second the wind died down and the ball moved on him and he ended up punching the ball back and upward into the back of the net instead of up and away from the goal. What an unlucky goal for us. It was the straw that broke our back.”
Shortly after that, Andy Morelos received his second yellow and was ejected from the game and the Huskies were forced to play with a man short the rest of the match.
”We gave it our best shot as the ref allowed lots of dirty play on the Toppenish players and no calls,” Garza said. “But when we fouled, the ref would stop the match and the Toppenish players would moan in agony on the ground and after a few minutes, would jump right up and play as if nothing had happened.”
Garza said it was a classic delay tactic by the Toppenish coach.
“Going down with false injuries and over exaggerating the fouls is something teams use when they are winning by slim margins,” Garza said. “They wasted a lot of time, time that we could have used to mount a comeback.”
The Huskies did manage to narrow the gap when Jorge Campos scored on a wild play that brought the Toppenish goalkeeper all the way out of his box to try and stop but Jorge went around him and shot from about 30 yards out to the empty net.
“We found ourselves in the same exact situation last year and managed to get three consecutive wins to make the state playoffs,” Garza said. “And we hope to be able to do the same thing this year.”
Othello 2, Wapato 0
The Huskies, desperately needing a win to move on, played their second match in as many days as they faced the Wolves May 14 at Huskie Field.
Goals by B.G. Guzman and Oscar Romero and tough defense by the entire team, allowed Othello to turn back Wapato to keep the dream alive.
“This match was totally different for the Toppenish game,” Garza said. “The referee let the players play and let them decide the game.”
The Huskies got on the scoreboard by attacking the goal early and often.
“Ivan Lopez broke free and took a shot at the goalie and he saved it, but it bounced to Enrique Romero who also took a shot and the goalie saved it,” Garza said. “Finally it landed at B.G. Guzman’s feet and he put it in the far right corner of the net for his 17th goal of the year.”
Othello, up 2-0, controlled the midfield throughout the rest of the match taking 25 shots at the Wapato goalie who made save after save, until Enrique Romero slammed in a rocket of a shot from about 20 yards out for his second goal of his career to seal the victory.
“It was an awesome goal,” Garza said. “Erik Suarez proved why he is a First Team All-League goalie, earning his fifth shutout of the season.
Quincy 3, Othello 1
The Jacks got on the board first on a breakaway by Raul Serrano at the 23-minute mark, but Othello’s Jorge Campos off an assist by B.G. Guzman at the 34-minute mark to tie the match 1-1.
The scored remained tied until the 80th minute when Huskie Estie Miron was hit with a red card for tackling the Jacks’ Luis Sorto at the top of the 18-yard box.
“The ref awarded them a direct kick, but we were focused as we set up the wall,” Gara said. “Our goalie was set, too, but No. 16 (Juan Romero) found a little gap in the wall and sent a rocket to the back of the right corner of the net.”
Garza said that goal set the tone for the rest of the game.
“With a player down and our backs against the wall, we pushed players up and only left two defenders back,” he said. “But we got caught pushing up and Sorto scored his second goal on a breakaway with two minutes left in the game to seal our fate.”
The team was obviously disappointed with the loss, which meant they were eliminated from the tournament.
“I told the guys at the end not to be ashamed of what happened,” Garza said. “Quincy was just better today. We did all we could, but just didn’t win the match.”
The Huskies were 12-1 in CWAC competition, which was good enough to take the league title.
Short URL: http://othellooutlook.com/?p=1782
Posted by Bob Kirkpatrick
on May 20 2009. Filed under Soccer.
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