Playoff dreams end in shootout for Southwest
EL CENTRO — In sports, every postseason loss is its own private hell. Getting to that do-or-die time drawing the short straw is heart-wrenching, full stop.
But overtime losses sting a little more. It’s like losing twice in one night.
So it was for the Southwest soccer team, who, on Friday night, fell to the Wolfpack of West Hills in penalty kicks, 6-5.
Southwest entered the match as the favorite. They were the home team. The two-seed. The undisputed IVL champs.
But despite numerous chances — including several in rapid succession right at the end of regulation — they couldn’t get the solitary goal they needed to avoid casting the game to the whims of fate in overtime and beyond.
It was a shame, because the Eagles played like the superior team for much of the game.
They started at a disadvantage, having to attack into a 20-plus mph headwind, coming out of the west, but that didn’t stop them from mounting a threat on their very first possession.
They didn’t have many more first-half chances, but they managed to keep the game mostly to the middle of the field and keep West Hills off the board despite the elements.
With the wind at their backs in the second half they were able to maintain near-constant possession.
West Hills got a couple of good looks on counterattack but went high on one and wide on the other.
Southwest by contrast got a look every other minute, but couldn’t get past Wolfpack goalie Carter Ochulli.
Dilan Cota, Sergio Silva, Kevin Sanchez and Diego Garcia all tried, but no dice.
It was still double-zeros when the final whistle blew, and it was still double-zeros at the end of the sudden-death overtime period.
So on came the shootout.
Through five kicks, things remained even stevens, with Paez and Ochulli each getting a single stop.
That brought on sudden death. On the second Southwest attempt, Ochulli blocked Ivan Verdin, ending the game and the Eagles’ postseason.