Santa Cruz Interscholastic Sports League: Varsity Soccer Championships

THEY ARE THE CHAMPIONS -- International boys varsity dons their medals.
Jonatan Muñoz, International School

Boys Championship
Griffins edge Knights in overtime, 2-1
This report was written by Andre Candia of International School and David Boldt, administrator of the SCISL weblog.
The International and Cambridge boys varsity soccer teams put on a show of such awesome energy and excitement that few in the large crowd dared even to move out of their seats as it went into “sudden death” overtime. tied 1-1.
Death would indeed be sudden. Just a few minutes into the scheduled 20-minute overtime Griffin Eduardo Bedoya raced in from the right and launched a long, looping shot into the left-hand side of the goal.
So many scoring opportunities had been thwarted by intrepid defensive play, or by penalty calls, or had turned out to be optical illusions, that there was a brief moment of suspended belief as the crowd wondered silently if this could really be the end of the match, which by then had encompassed over 90 minutes of intense, non-stop action Tuesday night at the Co-operative field.
Then, reality having become apparent, the International players and fans exploded in jubilation, while a pall of gloom fell over the Cambridge entourage, with the exhausted players walking about, heads downcast, giving each other consoling hugs and back slaps, and looking wistfully at the International team, by then bouncing up and down in unison and screaming in a gigantic group hug, after which they would take a “victory lap” around the field in a state of high glee.
The victory had many meanings. For Cambridge it ended the dream of going from last place to first place in the playoffs, and thus defending the championship it had won last year against International.
For International it was the end – at last – of three years of frustration. This was their third appearance in the championship game – and their first victory. Last year they had lost by one goal to Cambridge in the final. The year before the game had been a scoreless tie with Co-operative that was decided in Co-operative’s favor by a penalty shootout.
For Griffin coach Andrew Dolson, who will shortly be returning to the United States, it was a satisfying going-away present from his team, though the game had its dark moments for Dolson. Late in the second half he was issued a red card and sent off the field for kicking the ball during a heated dispute with the referee over an out-of-bounds call. (Tempers were running that high.)
Dolson, a former major league baseball pitcher, will be able to pair his medal from Tuesday’s championship with the gold won by his boys junior varsity team in the JV championship last week.
For the league it was a fitting finale for a set of championship and consolation games that often had spectators asking themselves: Can it get any more exciting than this? After which, sure enough, it got more exciting.
Both varsity volleyball championships went three sets and had to go beyond the normal ending of 15 points in the third set to determine a winner.
The final day of soccer featured four one-goal victories, two of which had to be decided in overtime.
More seriously, the games reflected the high and rising quality of play within the league, along with (probably not co-incidentally) a rising intensity of competition. All four schools were represented by at least one team in the four championship games.
The match began with both teams attacking and defending really well. The first goal was scored for Cambridge by Christopher Cocciani on a corner kick. Cocciani, a fullback, had slunk surreptitiously upfield from his defensive position through the gloom of night, and loitered on the penalty area line with such studied casualness that the Griffins may have mistaken him for an innocent bystander. But as the kick came in he knifed forward, unguarded, timing perfectly a high velocity header that went into the goal untouched.
The fact that Cocciani had been a student at International added a piquancy to his scoring what would be Cambridge’s lone goal – bitter for the Griffin adherents and sweet for Cambridge fans.
The rest of the half – indeed the rest of the game in normal time, except for one brief shining moment – consisted of a series of high-speed attacks and counterattacks going up and down the field with astonishing swiftness. There were innumerable shots on goal by both teams that shared one common characteristic: They didn’t go in.
With one exception. In the opening minutes of the second half Daniel Baldivieso unleashed a high velocity shot that Knight goalie seemed to gather into his stomach with both hands. Time then seemed to freeze for a nanosecond during which the ball somehow recovered its inertial energy, popped out of Grote’s grasp, and rolled on into the goal.
Grote was clearly shaken – and the Griffins further energized – by the episode. The Knight goalie mis-handled the next shot, which took a bad hop right in front of him, bounced upward off his chest into the air. Disaster for the Knights was avoided only when Cambridge’s ever-reliable sweeper, Jorge Yuan, cleared the ball out of the goal area.
Moments later Grote juggled another shot, but recovered in time. After that he seemed to get his confidence back, and returned to the jaunty, more assured style of play that is his custom.
It might be fun, though pointless, to try to analyze who came closest to scoring in the remainder of the game. Cambridge’s Junior Sanchez banged a free kick off the left-hand goal post at one point, sending the International contingent’s hearts into their mouths.
However, the Griffins actually put the ball in the goal with only seconds remaining. The play was called back because of a handball call.
Earlier International had another goal called back for an offside violation. And one could catalogue a fairly long list of oth near misses by both teams. The play lacked a coherent theme. Neither team dominated. Instead there was a kaleidoscopic series of coruscating episodes at alternate ends of the field.
It seemed like they might go on all night, until Bedoya’s shot put an end to it all. It was an awesome goal that no one was expecting – except maybe Bedoya. It represented the second time this year he had scored the winning goal against Cambridge.
The outstanding players of the match for the Griffins were: Mauricio Nostas, Jesus Rodriguez, Nicolas Bedoya, Jon Paz, Eduardo Bedoya, and Daniel Baldivieso.
But Cambridge had its share of distinguished players including Martin Pacor, Andres Cirigliano, Christopher Cocciani and Nicolas Gamboa.
The line-up for the champion Griffins was Eduardo Bedoya, Tommy Marcos, Rafeal Ribeiro, Jon Paz, Jose Landivar, Juan Javier Estenssoro, Baldivieso, Alex Roempler, Nicolas Bedoya, Jan Ivo Sochtig, Jorge Harriague, Daniel Roempler, Andres Estenssoro, Mauricio Nostas, Rodriguez.
For Cambridge: Cocciani, Manfred Grote, Andres Cirigliano, Zhau Fua Zhou Zeng, Nicolas Gamboa, Matias Martinez, Oscar Mariscal, Yeshen Li Tan, Junior Sanchez, Sergio Palazuelos, Jorge Yuan, Juan Manuel Salas, Martin Pacor, Kevin Pulis, Jhonny Sejas.

SOLID GOLD SMILES -- Jaguar girls varsity after winning championship.
Jonatan Muñoz, International School
Girls Championship
Jaguars gain 1-0 victory over Eagles
From coaches' reports
There was an air of almost surreal casualness around what would turn out to be a crucial moment during the first half of the varsity girls soccer championship game Tuesday at Co-operative.
Jaguar striker Tania Landivar and Eagle goalie Whitey Belovicz were standing around next to one of the goalposts, close to one another. They could have been simply two girls chatting about the weather, or boys, or where they were going on their next vacations.
To be sure, there was a soccer ball bouncing around, but without any sign of potential malice. The ball somehow landed on Landivar's head. She gave a short, upward jerk that bounced the ball into the air over Belovicz' head -- but not that high. It seemed at first that goalie, up on tippy-toes (the only reaction possible at such close quarters), would catch it. But she could not. The ball landed in the goal.
And that was it. The championship was decided on that one rather ordinary moment. The teams would play on, of course, and there would be opportunities on both sides that could be catalogued, but ultimately didn't matter.
One of them may be worth recalling in detail. Roxy Jien, the Eagles super-reliable forward threaded her way past two Jaguar defenders early in the second half and found herself in a one-one with Jaguar goalie Nataly Noquer.
Noquer was on her way out to try to snuff Jien's shot, as she has done to many break-away efforts this year, but Jien was not going to allow that. She looked up to check the approaching goalie, down to check the ball, then cranked a shot at just about the right height to clear the diving Noquer.
But Noquer didn't dive. Instead she "took one for the team," as the expression goes -- and stopped the point blank shot with her face. Apparently the joy of stopping the shot blotted out the pain, because she showed no sign of discomfort. Or she may just be one tough cookie. But if she´d ducked, the score would have been tied.
And so it went. Both coaches had made calibrated moves to counter the opposing team's offense, and, basically, they all worked.
For the Eagles, midfielder Jennifer Lau was again brought back from midfield to sweeper. Later, when scoring became of the essence, the line-up was adjusted again, and Lau went up to the front. She was unable to spark a score, though she came close, while her teammates were able to keep the Jaguars at bay.
High-scoring Jaguar forwards Landivar and Fernanda Vaca Diez would, from time to time, cruise into the Christian Learning like high-speed PT boats looking a destroyer to sink, but while they sometimes got close, they never got close enough to score a second time.
At the other end, the Jaguar defense did not let the swift Sabrina Hallock or power forward Daniela Brooks pentrate their perimeter.
There were, inevitably, close calls. Landivar did have one shot that got through and could have hit an open net, but it went a meter wide. On the other side, Noquer let a ball bounce over her head -- and there would have been a certain poetic justice if it had gone into the goal -- but it too was wide of the mark.
At the end of the game there were a couple of occasions Christian Learning felt a handball offense had been committed by Co-operative, once inside the penalty area when Brooks was squeezed between two defenders, and some spectators clearly agreed. However, no calls were made.
The full line-up for the champion Jaguars was: Noquer, Tali Rozenman, Leila Rozenman, Dominique Harrison, Carla Limpias, Hailey White, Aldana Roda, Cecelia Aponte, Vaca Diez, Tania Landivar, Darinka Matkovic, Florencia Casares, Alexia Handal, Sabrina Arnera, Mariana Perez, Maria Jose Landivar, Maria Fernanda Antelo, Giovanna Varalta.
For the Eagles: Belovicz, Tabita Malloy, Jennifer Lau, Katrina Beth Wilcke,Hallock, Brooks, Jien, Liliana Cai, Danielle Doi, Jessi Kennedy, Laura Lindahl, Alejandra Valencia, Hannah Swindoll, Jihea Ahn, Mariela Salinas, Aleida Apodaca, Jessica Smith.
EXCUSE ME, I WAS KICKING HERE -- Eagle gets off a kick, Jaguar moves in.
Giannina Gutierrez, Co-operative School

Boys consolation game
Jaguars beat Eagles 2-1, take 3rd
From coaches' reports
Through the regular season Christian Learning had seemed to "own" Co-operative, beating the Jaguars twice by multi-goal margins, but in the consolation game of the play-offs the Jaguars got, if not exactly even, a goodly measure of revenge.
Co-operative won the consolation game Tuesday on its home field by a 2-1 score. The victory entitled the Jaguars to 3rd place, and improbably dropped the Eagles, who had led the league for most of the year, into 4th place.
The game was further proof that this year on any given day any boys soccer team was capable of beating any other.
____________________
SPEED TEST -- Eagle Alex Apodaca (No. 18), Jaguar Esteban Gomez (5) race upfield.
Giannina Gutierrez, Co-operative School

The winning goal by 9th grader Jean Bretel was a controversial one. The flow of play had pulled Eagle goalie out of position, and at first it appeared that the ball would go into the goal without incident, but Eagle midfielder Alex Apodaca made a sensational dash seemingly out of nowhere to kick the ball out of the goal. However, the referee ruled that the ball had broken the plane of the goal -- or at least cracked it badly, before Apodaca's interception.
Bretel scored both Jaguar goals, which happened to be his first goals of the season, another anomaly. Josh Mojica scored the Eagles' lone goal.
The game had opened with a fairly even exchange of near-misses. Jose Manuel Vasquez, the Jaguars' high scorer this year, got everyone's adrenaline going with a wicked shot that hit the goalpost.
Then Eagle Esteban Eguez made a run right across the goal front about six meters out during which he kicked the ball toward the net three separate times -- but all of them were somehow blocked.
Co-operative finally opened the scoring on a confusing play in which the ball pinballed among a group of Jaguars and Eagles in front of the Eagle goal before Bretel finally launched a kick that ricocheted off a defender into the goal.
The game went on with Vasquez continuing to come close on several more occasions for the Jaguars.
Apodaca took a free kick for the Eagles from just outside the penalty area that went just over the goal.
Early in the second half Mojica scored for Christian Learning, scooping up a rebound and blasting it in.
Later the Jaguar adherents would have a bad moment when the Jaguar goalie Daniel Unagi juggled the ball while Eguez hovered beside him.
With only minutes remaining Bretel scored the goal that Apodaca could not quite stop to give Co-operative the victory.
The line-up for the victorious Jaguars was Unagi, Oliver Jones, Federico Sauto, Esteban Gomez, Sergio Gonzales, Esteban Espinoza, Pablo Taborga, Vasquez, Bretel, Jorge Rojas, Pablo Vaca Diez, Juan Casares, Cristobal Roda, Juan Abuawad, Wilson Salvatierra, Juan Peredo, Milan Marinkovic, Hyun Kim.
For the Eagles: Alejandro Garcia, Frankin Chou, Richard Ling, Danny Canaviri, Jeff Stabler, Josh Mojica, Fabricio Encina, Esteban Eguez, Ricardo Telchi, Nicolas Smith, Geo Lin, Mark Salinas, Alex Apodaca.

Girls consolation games
Griffins defeat Knights in overtime
From coaches' reports
International and Cambridge played each other tough in the girls consolation game, as they have all season, with the Griffins pulling out the victory on a free kick in overtime by Stephanie Saltzsieder.
The powerful kick slipped through the upstretched hands of the Knights impromptu goalie, Nan Jordan, after Jordan had appeared to catch it.
Jordan had been pressed into service when the regular goalie, Raquel Lopez, and two other Cambridge players showed up late because of exams and were not allowed to play. Jordan had been almost flawless in the role until the goal by Saltzsieder.
International had scored first when Laura Chavez, a senior, had latched onto a crossing pass and neatly tucked it into the goal. The Griffins led 1-0 at the half.
The Lady Knights had been able to even the score in the middle of the second half on a corner kick that bounced around in front of the Griffin goal for several seconds, until 8th grader Camila Johnson banged it in.
Cambridge had its chances both in the remainder of the game and the overtime but kept getting bounced around. One situation that looked particularly promising was thwarted when two Cambridge players going for the ball in front of an open net collided.
But International had appeared to be on the verge of ending the game in overtime on a corner kick situation in which Jordan made a particularly alert save.
The victory cemented International's hold on third place, and confirmed Cambridge's position in fourth.
The line-up for the winning Griffins was Adriana Ocampo, Matilde Vasquez, Regina Landivar, Stephanie Gioto, Ana Karina Marin, Chavez, Fabian Murillo, Melissa Roca, Nadine Witteveen, Saltzsieder, Fernanda Sepulveda, Mariana Chavez.
For Cambridge: Lisa Delboy, Nadia Rocco, Belén Muñoz, Liliana Sainz, Camila Johnson, Alejandra Abastoflor, Moira Vaca, Nan Jordan, Andrea Saba, Lourdes Justiniano, Amaya Yañez, Lucia Candia, Helen Yong.