SHS, LHS to Valley finals
Gomez scores game-winner for Spartans
From the beginning of the season, Jimmy Madrigal has been telling his team and anyone that would listen that Strathmore High School boys soccer was going to the Valley championship. In December, the Spartans head coach added that the team would host the title game.
And on Tuesday evening, topseeded Strathmore took down fourth-seeded Firebaugh in a 2-1 overtime, comeback victory in the CIF Central Section Division VI semifinal to make their coach’s prediction come true.
“It feels great,” Madrigal said. “Really, really good. I told these boys, ‘We’ve been there. We’ve been so close for the last three years. We’ve been in playoffs.’ It just feels great.”
The Spartans (13-9-1, 8-2 East Sequoia League) were on the cusp of going to the Valley final the previous two seasons, but lost in the semifinals both years. Now Strathmore is on its way to making history by hosting the school’s firstever boy’s soccer Valley final on Friday when they take on seventh-seeded Orange Cove (11-12-5) in the title game at 6 p.m.
“It’s a good feeling,” SHS junior defender Enrique Gomez. “Playing in our backyard [with] the support of our fans. It’s a good feeling. My first experience in a Valley game for soccer, but it feels good. Hopefully we’ll get the win.”
Gomez was a large part of the Spartans’ win, heading in the game-winning goal on a beautiful cross off a corner kick from senior midfielder Alejandro Bermudez in the seventh minute of overtime. It was a goal that Madrigal told Gomez he would score.
“He always calls the game-winning goals for me and I trust him, I love that coach,” Gomez said. “I love him. That was an amazing cross from Alejandro. And I just seen that, and I was like, ‘This is mine.’ And it went in the net.”
Strathmore didn’t have the prettiest of first halves and struggled to gain control of the ball. Despite solid play in the net from junior goalkeeper Damian Rodriguez and good defense from Gomez and his fellow defenders, Firebaugh got on the board first with a goal 26 minutes into the game.
“We had an ugly start, but the boys kept their head in the game and we just came back from behind and it was wonderful,” Madrigal said.
At halftime, Madrigal said he reminded the team that they were better than they were playing and had beaten better teams than the Eagles in the past. He used the Spartans’ 3-2 doubleovertime win over rival Lindsay (23-2-2, 9-1 ESL) — the No. 6 team in the entire Central Section — earlier this season to motivate the team. That win also featured a Gomez game-winner.
“Play like when you played Lindsay,” Madrigal told his team. “Just act like it’s Lindsay. Put the pressure on in the second half and we’ll win.”
And that’s what the Spartans did. Playing more aggressively, Strathmore finally got its break in the 15th minute of the second half when junior striker Osvaldo Ibarra was dragged down from behind by a Firebaugh player and awarded a penalty kick. Ibarra, who said he was “kind of scared” after missing a penalty kick earlier in the season, sent the ball sailing into the right side of the goal for the tie.
“I just know I had to do it for the team, take one,” Ibarra said. “I felt good about myself taking it, I felt confident. I had to do it for the team.”
Ibarra, Gomez and Bermudez are the Spartans’ three captains and who Madrigal will look to to carry the team in the school’s biggest boys soccer game ever.
“As long as my captains step it up — they speak up, they motivate our team — they’re a captain for a reason,” Madrigal said. “I [told my team], ‘That’s what’s going to help us win. Our captains need to step it up and motivate our players.’ If we do that [Friday] I think we’re going to be alright with our captains doing their job.” Lindsay 5 Orosi 0
Top-seeded Lindsay looks to go back-to-back as the CIF Central Section Division IV champion after beating fifthseeded Orosi in Tuesday’s semifinal game at Frank Skadan Stadium.
Marcos Ceballos scored two goals for the Cardinals (23-2-2, 9-1 ESL) while Moises Betencourt, Angel Camacho and Agustin Valdovinos had a goal apiece.
The reigning-east Sequoia League champions host second-seeded Mira Monte (24-2-4) of Bakersfield on Friday at 6 p.m.