Upland outlasts Esperanza, wins championship

Upland knew it had a good boys soccer team this season.

The Highlanders didn’t know exactly how good until the CIF Southern Section playoffs began.

After knocking off the No. 1 seed in the first round, unseeded Upland finished off its section playoff run with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Esperanza in the Division 5 title game Saturday afternoon at El Modena High School.

It is the first boys soccer section championship in school history.

“It means a lot. It brought the best emotions out of me today. It brought me to tears,” said Upland coach Mike Diaz, who has served as an assistant and head coach for the boys and girls programs for the past 30 years. “The boys believed in me. They believed in my assistant coach and my program. They kept fighting hard the entire game. I wouldn’t say it was a pretty win, but nonetheless it was a win.”

Upland, which finished in second place in the Baseline League behind Division 4 champion Etiwanda, dominated possession and scoring chances in the opening minutes. A foul gave the Highlanders a free kick at a slight angle from 27 yards out, and sophomore Gavin Sampognaro stepped up to take it in the 24th minute.

“The sun was setting right in the goalie’s face,” Diaz said of the free kick. “So I yelled at Ricky (Maldonado), ‘Tell Gavin to hit it (to score). The sun is right in his face.’ Gavin probably already knew that. He hit it with pace and tempo, and it went in the back of the net.”

“The spot was perfect for a free kick so I decided to shoot it,” Sampognaro said. “If it was farther, I probably just would’ve crossed it. As soon as I kicked it, I knew I was going to score. It was the best feeling because I didn’t expect to score the only goal.”

Before Saturday, Upland (15-4-4) had scored at least two goals in each of the four previous playoff games and a total of 14.

The goal seemed to wake up Esperanza (186-4), which suddenly began to create scoring chances and then had the better scoring chances the rest of the game as the Aztecs had six corner kicks in the second half alone.

Junior goalie Aiden Wisely made five saves and directed traffic around the goal to record his second shutout of the playoffs.

“I knew this opponent would be good,” Diaz said. “They never gave up. They threw everything at us. I think my boys maybe got a little panicky towards the end. We were fortunate to win.”

And Upland will have a chance to make another run with the majority of its top players being underclassmen.

“I still have two more years to try to win it again,” Sampognaro said. “We knew that since we were going to be in Division 5, we knew we were one of the best teams. How we play, no one is going to be able to stop us.”