ONE GOAL DEFEATS PARKER

With seconds remaining in Francis Parker’s Southern California Regional Division III boys soccer championship match, a desperate Lancers fan screamed, “Get after it boys!”

On a blustery, cold Saturday night that caused many of the players to wear gloves, there was nothing wrong with the Lancers’ effort. The problem was the other team on field. Appearing in its third regional final in the last four years, Bakersfield Garces Memorial ended Parker’s dream season 1-0 on the Lancers’ field.

For the visitors, the win secured the Rams’ second Socal title, the first coming in 2019. Parker was appearing in the Socal Regional championship game for the first time in 11 years.

The Lancers are still looking for their first Socal title.

“We had trouble breaking their line (of defense),” said Parker coach Amani Walker. “They’re a good team. They’re experienced. I don’t think we played to our full potential. If we played them any other night we could just as easily come out on top.”

Parker finished the season 18-5-1. It was only the second time the Lancers were shut out.

Garces controlled the match most of the night, outshooting Parker 21-10.

After a scoreless first half, Garces scored the game’s lone goal with 30 minutes, 50 seconds to play. It took twin brothers to pull it off. Palmer Bank sailed a throw-in all the way to the far post where his brother, Fletcher, headed it into the net. The twins, who are seniors, have both committed to Stanford.

The win ran the Rams’ record to 21-1-1. They outscored opponents 96-10.

There were more scoring chances in the first half when Garces outshot the Lancers 13-4.

The Rams had two excellent chances to score, first on a header that Parker goalie Myles Herr grabbed.

Minutes later the visitors had a 3-on-1 breakaway when Matthew Mendoza blasted a shot from 20 yards that was on target, until defender Max Haberman dived to knock the ball out of bounds.

Parker had two chances to score in the first 40 minutes. First, an Adrien Marcelli free kick skittered untouched 10 yards in front of the goal. Sixty seconds later Marcelli blasted a shot from 25 yards that sailed 5 yards wide.

With less than two minutes to play Parker had one final chance to score, but George Handley’s strike sailed wide right.

Walker completed his third season as Parker’s coach. In 2020, the Lancers lost the San Diego Section Div. IV championship to Mater Dei. Last year, the Lancers lost in the Division III title game to Rancho Bernardo.

On a team that features 19 seniors, the Lancers broke through this season, beating Carlsbad 1-0 for the Division II section title.

Elsewhere: Two other San Diego County teams, both seeded third, lost to the top seeds in the regional finals: San Pasqual’s boys fell to Anaheim Servite 2-1 in overtime and the San Marcos girls lost to Temecula Valley 4-1. The Torrey Pines boys team, seeded second, defeated No. 1 Redondo Union 2-0.