JOY IN MUDVILLE -- Cambridge players and fans celebrate boys soccer victory.Carlos Hugo Vaca, Cambridge
Cooperative, International and Cambridge triumph
Hail to the conquering heroes!
Cooperative won two championships Saturday in the 2009 SCISL Varsity Championship Tournament, one in boys volleyball and the other in girls soccer, but teams from other schools took the trophies in boys soccer and girls volleyball.
The Cambridge boys soccer team made its "Cinderella story" come true with an epic 3-2 win over Cooperative in the climactic final match of the Tournament.
And simultaneously the International girls volleyball team scored a dramatic straight sets victory over Cooperative to take that trophy.
It was as if Cooperative had been playing under a magic spell that somehow expired at noon. (The two championships the Jaguars lost started at 12:30 p.m.
The Cooperative girls soccer team had earlier finished its perfect season by whipping Christian Learning 9-0 in that championship game.
The Cooperative boys volleyball team had been similarly overwhelming in defeating International in straight sets to take that trophy. The Jaguar boys also compiled an unbeaten season.
In the consolation games, International secured third place in boys soccer, while Christian Learning took third place in both boys and girls volleyball.
Boys Soccer: Cambridge's Miracle
It could have been a movie plot. In fact it has been -- Bad News Bears, Rocky, Angels in the Outfield, Hoosiers, and many, many more.
After a regular season in which they won not a single game, the Cambridge boys varsity soccer team fought its way to the championship game against highly favored and undefeated Cooperative, then came from behind to win the trophy 3-2 with a gutsy, all-out effort that had almost everyone -- including even some Jaguar fans -- shaking their heads and saying simply, "What a great game!"
Cambridge was no doubt driven by a wide range of emotions. Revenge for the three defeats Cooperative had pinned on the Knights this year, including an 11-1 opening day thrashing. Redemption, perhaps, for an entire season in which there hasn't been much for Cambridge fans to cheer about.
And some very particular and personal reasons. "It's my birthday today," junior midfielder Matias Martinez told a teacher before the game. "I want to have something to celebrate."
Things did not start well for the Knights, as the Jaguars scored first when about midway through the first period their leading scorer Jose Manuel Vasquez received a pass on the left side of the goal and unleashed a shot that passed untouched into the corner of the net.
____________
MAN-TO-MAN DEFENSE --
The game was a sequence of duels between individual Knights and Jaguars,
Carlos Hugo Vaca, Cambridge, and Kelly Clark Boldt, Cooperative
____________
But that concluded the scoring for the half, which was played with intense fury on both sides, with each having its chances to score -- though the Jaguars probably had more.
Cambridge had started with their big star, Junior Sanchez, playing on defense, hoping to get a one-goal advantage as they had against Cooperative Friday and then holding onto it. After Vasquez' goal Sanchez moved to the offensive zone, but Cooperative's rough-and-tumble, double-teaming defense kept him largely in check. Cambridge did draw a half dozen or more free kicks, but the Cooperative defense (aided at times by a gusting crosswind that made precision kicking difficult) was up to the challenges presented.
Shortly into the second half, however, Sanchez was tripped up in the penalty area and made good on the rsulting point-blank penalty kick to knot the score at 1-1.
After several more minutes of rapid action with the ball seeming to ping-pong up and down the field, Cooperative got a corner kick that Jaguar Wilson Salvatierra, who played brilliantly throughout the Tournament, headed into the goal, making the score 2-1 for Cooperative.
At that point the mood in the stands seemed to be "Well, good for Cambridge. They put up a good fight."
Cambridge, however, was not quite through fighting. When, a shorty while later, they got a corner kick, fullback Kevin Pulis snuck up from his defensive position apparently posing as an innocent by-stander, then raced in to kick the ball into the goal and make it a 2-2 ballgame.
This triggered a crisis among the crew of younger boys manning the scoreboard, since they only had one "2." A Cooperative administrator raced over to find out why the score was not being correctly presented. One of the boys tried gamefully to solve the problem by leaning out the "Visitors" opening of the scoreboard and holding up a two-fingered "V" signal to indicate the 2-2 tie. Later the crew tried switching their only "2" back and forth from one side to the other.
Most in the crowd, though, knew very well what the score was, and within a few more minutes Cambridge would solve the scoreboard crew's dilemma by adding its third score on what may have been the most confusing and controversial play of the day.
It began with a long, booming punt by Cambridge goalie Jose Luis Ribera that came bounding down the field with Sanchez and others in hot pursuit. It bounded high, hit the crossbar and bounced directly downward. Jaguar goalie Eduardo Ribera, who had leapt high for it, lost his balance and was now lying in the ground, tried to slap it aside, but Sanchez immediately claimed -- and the referees confirmed, that the ball had broken the plane of the goal to become the third score.
Most of the players and fans could not tell immediately what had happened, but got the picture as the huge Cambridge cheering cheering section, packed into the area right next to the goal, exploded in exultation, and the Cambridge players down near the goal raised their arms in triumph.
Cooperative would get more opportunities, but not that many as Cambridge went into some artful strategies to run out the clock. They shifted into a defensive alignment and repeatedly "iced" the ball with long, high kicks into the Cooperative end.
On two corner kicks the ball was tapped in to Sanchez who dribbled back into the corner and, in effect, defied the Jaguars to take the ball away from him, On one of these occasions he was able to keep the ball bottled up for over 30 seconds as two, three, and then four Jaguar defenders tried to get it away from him. finally forcing him to pass to Martinez, who controlled it a while longer.
When the whistle sounded to end the game the players and fans converged on the field to form a joyous bouncing, hugging, largely shirtless agglomeration of humanity. The final handshake was delayed but finally took place with fitting formality.
While nothing can diminish the dimensions of ther Knights ascension from worst to first, it might be noted at least in passing that the Knight boys are no strangers to championship contests. They won the championship last year and three years ago. Two years ago they were runners-up.
And to conclude: Happy birthday, Matias.
Cambridge line-up: Sanchez, Gonzalo Prudencio, Raul Prudencio, Martinez, Alvaro Lopez, Javier de las Heras, Jose Luis Rivero, Marilon Castillo, Fabricio Subirana, Facundo Rodriguez, Diego Bejar, and Federico Rocco. Coach: Carlos Euler.
For Cooperative: Milan Marinkovic, Alfonso Roca, Wilson Salvatierra, Juan Carlos Laguna, Esteban Sauto, Federico Sauto, Jean Bretel, Jorge Zankis, Jose Manuel Vasquez, Camilo Avila, Santiago Paz, Hyun Kim, Francisco Arioni, Juan Alfredo Abuawad, Jose Mozza, Eduardo Ribera, Jose David Sanchez, Josue Abuawad. Coach: Nicolas Mostert. Assistant coach: Dario Rojas.
DECIDING MOMENT -- The third Cambridge goal came on a confusing play. The ball bounced down from the crossbar (top) and Jaguar goalie Eduardo Ribera, lying on the ground, tried to slap it away while teammate Esteban Sauto pushed back Knight Junior Sanchez (6). Sanchez, having shed Sauto's cross-body block (middle), signals to the Cambridge fans that the ball is in the goal. Exultation quickly spreads (bottom). Jonatan Muñoz, International.
