Central ties Brawley 1-1, ties Calexico atop IVL
EL CENTRO — There was no room for such provincial notions as “winning” and “losing” in Thursday’s regular-season-capping soccer match between Brawley and Central Union high schools at Cal Jones Field here. Equality reigned supreme, with the Wildcats and Spartans each scoring once in the first half and then neglecting to do so again for the remainder of the game.
If any party was particularly gratified by the night’s result, it was probably the Calexico Bulldogs, who, thanks to their concurrent 2-1 victory over the Southwest Eagles, finish the season tied with the Spartans atop the Imperial Valley League standings at 9-1-2.
That said, the draw probably didn’t bother Brawley, either.
Fully healthy for the first time in nearly a month — Thursday was lead striker Joel Murillo’s first game back from a lengthy injury — the Wildcats were finally able to replicate some of the form that had them looking like a IVL contender at the beginning of the season, allowing them to head into the CIF-SDS Division IV playoffs with the confidence potentially to make a deep run.
“We needed a game like this to prepare us for playoffs. It was a good test for us, to help us get ready for that environment,” said Coach Frank Felix.
Coincidentally, it was a poorly timed bout of ill health from a key Central Union player that helped the Wildcats get on the board somewhere around minute 8.
Murillo had a decent look from the left side, but the shot he put on goal didn’t have much mustard. Had Spartan keeper Jose Berlin-Torres not pulled a muscle in his back, there’s a chance he could have made the save.
With that lone goal in the bank, the Wildcats proceeded to weather storm after Spartan storm. If it weren’t for a pure power shot by Juan Pablo Esparza that split the hands of goalie Jesus Gomez at minute 15, the Wildcats might have been able to win outright instead of settling for a tie.
Of course, if the Spartans hadn’t hit the crossbar on multiple occasions, or flubbed a number of choice one-on-one opportunities, they might easily have flooded the scoreboard.
Central forward Vasilios Syrengelas had three solid chances in the five minutes following Esparza’s score and couldn’t get anything out of them. Then, from minute 35 through the half, it was Christian Quijada’s turn to miss and miss again.
All in all, the Spartans appeared to dominate the first half in every area save the one that matters.
The second half was more back-andforth. The Wildcats put some honest shots on goal, but couldn’t get anything past Nathan Santana, and the Spartans encountered a similar roadblock in Gomez.
The ball spent a lot of time in the air, with neither team making much happen in the possession game.
Afterwards Spartan Coach Demian Rodiles agreed that, “We could’ve kept control a little more. … There was a little too much kickball, but, you know, in these kind of games, where neither team can afford to lose … sometimes it just turns out like that.”
Still Rodiles felt that the Spartans had played a generally solid game.
“I think we had a majority of the attacks,” he said. “In my opinion, we missed at least three goals. We should’ve had three goals, (but) it’s just one of those nights you can’t put the ball in the net.”
Just as the Wildcats will be soldiering on in the Division IV postseason, the Spartans will be active in the Division II bracket. This year marks the third straight that Central has been bumped up a Division. They were in D-IV themselves back in 2018, making it as far as the divisional final before turning around and doing the same thing in D-III last season.