TOKAY SOCCER WINS PLAYOFF OPENER
Fourteen minutes and 10 players. The Tokay High boys soccer team were faced with that situation against a tough Turlock squad in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division I playoff opener at the Grape Bowl on Tuesday night. The Tigers were dealt with the loss of a player due to a red card.
But seventh-seeded Tokay played solid defense down the stretch, which led to a thrilling 2-1 win over No. 10 Turlock in the opener. Now advancing to the quarterfinals, Tokay plays at No. 2 Jesuit of Carmichael, which defeated No. 15 Chavez 4-2 on Thursday.
The game was tied at 1-1 until the 61st minute of the game. That is when TriCity Athletic League champion Tokay (15-1-2) took two shots on goal. The first one came from striker Alfonso Ochoa, as the ball bounced off the side crossbar and back into play. Turlock goalie Luis Carrillo was out of the box, as the ball rolled toward Tokay striker Lionardo Ruiz, who fired the ball into the back of the net for the goal.
“It was tough,” said Tokay coach Ruben Gomez. “He (Ochoa) found the ball, took it away from one of the (Turlock players). Then Leo (Ruiz) found the back of the net.”
At the 66th minute, Baez, while battling a Turlock player for the ball down
the sidelines, was whistled for a red card for violent contact. Baez and any Tiger players had not received a red or yellow cards until that point. Baez walked off the field, leaving Tokay with nine players and goalkeeper Christian Valencia on the field.
This was the second consecutive game a Tokay soccer player was given a red card. In the league finale against Tracy, also at the Grape Bowl on Feb. 8, Baez was also given a red card and the Tigers were forced to play with only 10 on the field, along with Tracy, which also had a player red carded. But Tokay knocked off the Bulldogs with a 2-1 win.
“I guess we’re getting use to it,” joked Gomez.
Each of the half-dozen times Turlock drive the ball to the Tigers’ box, Tokay responded with defense that forced the Bulldogs to boot the ball off to the sides of the goal or go out of bounds.
“We were focused on this game,” Gomez said. “We just hung in there.”
Turlock (16-6-5) scored its only goal of the game in the 49th minute. Bulldog midfielder Samuel Goana had a wide open shot in front of the box, and took the line drive shot into the corner of the net for a 1-1 score.
“I thought in the second half, we came out with a lot of energy,” said Turlock coach Doug Sperry. “Really controlled the game for the most part.”
During that time frame, Gomez inserted Rosales and Ochoa to the front line to steal the ball away from a Turlock player who has possession of it.
“I rotated my forwards because that’s the only ones I needed,” Gomez said. “We still had to play with guys in the back. They (Rosales and Ochoa) were just running things all the way.”
Tokay scored its first goal in the seventh minute of the game. Moving the ball side to side of the field, Tokay striker Ivan Rosales moved the ball with a crossfield pass to Ruiz, who, without hesitation, shot the ball past Carrillo for a 1-0.
“I think we came out slow and they took advantage of it,” Sperry said. “We made a few bad mistakes that cost us.”
For the rest of the first half, defense ruled for the Tigers and Bulldogs. Each team had two shots on goal each. Turlock adjusted its defense to slow down the crossfield passes, in particular between Rosales and Ruiz.
“Turlock is a very good team,” said Gomez of the Bulldogs.
To start the second half, Tokay had three shots on goal in the 45th, 46th and 47th minutes; two by midfielder Mathew Salas and the other by Rosales. But the attempts hit the crossbars.
Gomez feels experience from the majority of the players who were on last winter’s team, which also won the TCAL title and advanced into the second round of the D-II playoffs, paid off.
“They wanted to play another game on Thursday,” said Gomez of the Tigers’ game at Jesuit.
The Tigers had 11 shots on goal; Ruiz had three attempts, while midfielder Sebastian Quiroz, Salas and Rosales had two each. Midfielder Jose Gonzalez and Baez had one each.
Valencia, only a junior, had six saves in the game.