FC Porterville falls
Goals are always hard to come by in soccer making for fun and exhilarating comebacks on the pitch, but unfortunately for F.C. Porterville — a travel U18 team composed of local talent — a comeback victory was not in the cards as they fell 5-2 to Corning NCU Manchester United in the Cal North Presidents Cup on Sunday in Tracy.
Corning put the pressure on early, but Porterville (18-2-1) was able to maintain a strong defensive performance until 30 minutes into the match when they gave up two goals in a span of 2 minutes, one of which came from a penalty kick.
Porterville managed to answer 10 minutes later with a goal from Strathmore High School’s Alejandro Bermudez, but Corning scored again in the final minute of the first half to close it ahead 3-1.
“They capitalized on our mistakes our defense made,” Porterville head coach Jimmy Madrigal said. “It was all mistakes. Even though our defense played great, they played really good, but they can’t be perfect the whole game. It wasn’t all on them. We had a lot of opportunities, more chances than them, just didn’t put them in.”
Porterville outshot Corning in the second half, but their shots weren’t always on goal, with some sailing high. The team fell to an insurmountable threegoal deficit 20 minutes in and even with Mission Oak’s Alturo Mendoza scoring three minutes later for Porterville the team couldn’t make up the difference.
Corning scored the final goal with 15 minutes left to play.
One of the US Youth Soccer’s state to national level program series, Sunday’s state level Presidents Cup match was the qualifying cup competition for the regional level US Youth Soccer Far West Presidents Cup held on June 12-17 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Winners of the regional championship advance to play in the National Presidents Cup in Indiana in July.
Porterville’s season
isn’t over quite yet with Madrigal planning to take the boys to at least one more tournament this summer, either in Las Vegas or San Diego. The tournament in San Diego is the Nexen Manchester City Cup on Memorial Day weekend. The tournament features the best teams from around the world including teams from the Premier League and Major League Soccer’s youth systems.
F.C. Porterville is led by Madrigal, the head coach of Strathmore High School’s varsity soccer program. His travel team is made up of CIF Central Section champions and runnerups, all-league players as well as Central Section All-stars from Porterville, Lindsay, Strathmore, Tulare and other nearby cities.