GALT FALLS, HAWKS WIN IN PLAYOFFS
Late goal knocks Galt out of the first round of the section playoffs
GALT — Throughout the first 76 minutes of Thursday’s Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoff game at Walker Community Park, the Galt High boys soccer team took many shots on goal.
Sierra executed one of its few chances and halted the Warriors’ perfect season.
The eighth-seeded Timberwolves pulled off a 1-0 upset in over top seed Galt (16-0-2), back-to-back Sierra Valley Conference champions. The loss prevents the Warriors from defending their section D-IV title.
At the 65th minute, Galt forward Fabian Rodriguez had the team’s final shot on goal for the next 14 minutes. That shot went off to the side of the net.
“In the big picture, this just wasn’t our night,” said Galt coach Dane White. “We had some great shots.”
For the next 11 minutes, Galt and Sierra battled for the ball control at the middle of the field and near the other’s net. Then T’Wolves’ forward Alex Mata, in the middle of scramble among his teammates and Warrior players, found an opening to punch the ball into the middle of the net. Mata’s goal sent him into the arms of Sierra teammates on the field and sidelines.
“There wasn’t a lot of time,” said Sierra coach Joe Pires. “We just knew that one goal was probably going to be good enough to win this game.”
Galt was faced with the opportunities to tie the game and send it into overtime, if not score two goals for the remarkable come-from-behind victory.
“We shifted a couple of guys around,” White said. “But Sierra just fell back, and defended. We just
tried to push a little bit harder on the attack.”
The Warriors controlled possession of the ball for most of the final minutes of the game. Twice Galt had the ball near the Timberwolves’ net. But those shots on goal were missed over the net and the side.
Sierra, on defense, pressured any Galt player who had the ball near the sidelines to boot it out of bounds, to take time off the clock. The strategy worked, as the game’s head official blew his whistle to end the game. That led to the Timberwolves celebrating at midfield, while some of the Galt players dropped to their knees in disbelief of the first-round playoff loss.
“Both teams were getting tired,” Pires said. “Time was running out, so that was perfect.”
Before all of the action took place in the final minutes, the Warriors’ Jason Welch, Alexis Gonzalez, Gilberto Lopez and Rodriguez had their chances to punch the ball into the back of the net. But the shots rolled outside of the goal, out of bounds, sailed above the top of the bar and a line drive shot from 20 yards out all miss.
The first half had Galt take shots on goal that included one on a free kick by Adrian Copado in the 32nd minute. Other shots at the net for the Warriors came off the feet of Welch, Arath Chavez and Marcos Ulloa.
“At first we were nervous to bring the ball down and play our game,” White said. “But I take nothing away from Sierra. They were an excellent opponent.”
Despite their chance of repeating as section champions denied, White, who is an agriculture teacher at Galt High, is very optimistic that returning players for next winter will work on their skills in the spring, summer and fall months on their competitive soccer teams. The coach feels his Warriors will take another shot at the SVC title and return to playoffs next winter. Out of the 23 players on this year’s roster, only four are seniors, and 11 are freshmen and sophomores.
“This team of ours is young,” White said. “I’m very proud of our seniors (Saul Ortiz, Rodriguez, Eliseo Diaz and Miguel Pantoja) for the work they did this season. Building that chemistry with one another has been very helpful, looking ahead the next couple of years.”
NEW ORLEANS — Omri Casspi has broken his right thumb in his first game with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Casspi says he’s expected to miss about four weeks but hopes he can return a little sooner than that.
The forward says he jammed the thumb on his shooting hand while trying to defend Houston guard Eric Gordon in the third quarter of the Pelicans’ 129-99 loss to the Rockets on Thursday night.
He says he briefly remained in the game but opted for an Xray after it swelled up and learned it was broken.
Casspi scored 12 points while playing just under 24 minutes.