Vallejo falls to Newark Memorial in playoffs
Cougars score twice after halftime in quarterfinals
No. 12-seeded Newark Memorial High School has been a slayer of the Tri-County Athletic League this postseason.
After dispatching Jesse Bethel three days ago in the first round, the Cougars eliminated No. 4 Vallejo after a 3-1 decision at Corbus Field in the quarterfinals of the North Coast Section Division II boys soccer playoffs.
The game was tied 1-1 at halftime but Newark (16-7-2) scored the game-winner in the 44th minute and added an insurance goal in the 75th minute.
Vallejo head coach Jose Gutierrez said his team didn’t see any film of Newark’s firstround, 4-1 win over Bethel.
“We basically went off of word of mouth and then kind of adjusted from there,” Gutierrez said. “We said we were going to play our game and I think we did play our game. It just wasn’t our day.”
Things did not get off to a great start for the Redhawks (18-5-4) as Newark’s Fidel
Ochoa volleyed the ball ahead to Alfonso Sandoval, who pushed it past Vallejo goalkeeper Francisco Mendoza for the quick 1-0 lead.
Gutierrez yelled to his team “We’ll get it back!”
And the Redhawks did just that in the 30th minute as senior Christian Bernal scored on a rebound near the far post. Newark goalkeeper Jacob Berry was knocked down on the previous shot and the officials conferred before allowing the goal.
“It looked like our keeper had the ball and then the ball got knocked out,” Newark head coach Rick Villa said. “I’m glad that wasn’t the difference in the game but it was good. It gave (Vallejo) some life and then I think we woke up.”
Gutierrez was pleased with the execution on the tying goal.
“This morning we had a little practice so we could go over free kicks, corners and we talked about that exact play,” he said. “I told them ‘That it’s one of the basics. No one uses it anymore. Let’s do it,’ and something happened out of it. Props for the players for pulling it off in the game. It’s totally different to do it at practice than to do it in the game.”
The Redhawks actually looked like they might tie the game in the 25th minute on a rocket from Vallejo striker Cristian Rodas. The shot popped off Berry’s hands and into the air but the goalkeeper was finally able to corral the ball.
Newark came out as the more aggressive team in the second half and Sandoval made it 2-1 in the 44th minute as he volleyed the ball over Mendoza, who took a step forward to try and break up the play.
The Cougars had several other shots on goal from pointblank range including one sequence with about 10 minutes left after a corner kick. Danny Santillan had the initial shot and Nick Medrano had the rebound but neither shot connected.
The Redhawks had their own corner kick opportunity a few minutes later as Jorge Fausto set up Rodas, but the senior put too much on the shot and it went up and over the net.
Newark finally iced the win in the 75th minute when Vallejo failed to clear out and Santillan converted his 1-on-1 opportunity for the 3-1 lead.
In the waning minutes, Vallejo’s Allan Lopez got his head on the ball in front of the goal but Berry was in position to make the save.
If Bethel was able to win on the road at Newark, Vallejo and Bethel would have played for a fourth time. Gutierrez admitted while that would have been exciting, it was nice to play a playoff game and just concentrate on soccer rather than emotion.
Bernal said he really enjoyed the season overall.
“This is a great group of players,” he said. “It’s one of the best teams I ever played on.”
Newark travels to top-seeded Las Lomas next week for the section semifinals. Las Lomas eliminated Bishop O’Dowd 3-0.
Villa said he wasn’t that shocked by the No. 12 seed even though his team was a league champ.
“I wasn’t really surprised,” he said. “Our league really wasn’t that strong and we had eight losses but we played some really tough teams too, and I think that helped us for the NCS. We didn’t have the results but we were battled tested.”