All-time Granite Hills’ leading scorer Niels Woods was able to pad his stats on Thursday, finding the back of the net five times in a 7-3 CIF D-VI playoff victory at Cate.
Ema Boateng scored his second goal of the game for Cate early in the second half to tie the game at 3-3 before the Cougars separated themselves with four unanswered goals, all by Woods.
“It just came with hard work by my whole team,” Woods said. “I can’t stress how much the whole team just helped me out. I wouldn’t be here in this position if it weren’t for them.”
Granite Hills as a team wouldn’t be in this position if not for an eleventh hour call from the CIF offices.
Cate's Ema Boateng holds position in front of Granite Hills' goal on Thursday.
The Cougars, Desert Sky League champion and once the division’s No. 2 seed, had been forced to forfeit wins for having an ineligible player on its roster for part of the season. After showing CIF relevent evidence, some wins were reinstated at the last minute, allowing the Cougars to qualify for the postseason as their league’s fourth-place team.
When they CIF draws were released on Monday, Cate was slated to face Oakwood. That afternoon, Granite Hills head coach Paul Casarez received a call from CIF notifying him that the Cougars had been given an at-large playoff bid. A wild-card game was created for them on Tuesday against Cate’s original opponent Oakwood, who the Cougars soundly defeated 5-0.
“We’re just happy to get into the playoffs and represent our school and our league,” explained Casarez, adding that he did think it unfair for the teams that had to face them in the early rounds.
Like Cate, which shared the Condor League title but had to play the division’s de facto No. 2 team in the first round.
“It’s ridiculous,” said Cate head coach Dave Mochel. “As far as I can tell, however CIF chose to sanction them didn’t hurt them a bit and the only two teams that were hurt by it were Oakwood and us.”
Mochel did like the way his team rose to the challenge, playing the Cougars even for more than half of the game.
“On the offensive side of the ball, I thought we played really well,” Mochel said.
The only team to score more goals against Granite Hills would be Division II’s top-ranked team, the undefeated Santa Barbara Dons. While the Cougars lost to the Dons 4-0, they did beat the Channel League’s second-place team Dos Pueblos 1-0.
Granite Hills’ defense, which has 18 shutouts this season, may be tough but the goals came at a breakneck speed in Thursday’s first half.
Christian Lugo scored first for Granite Hills to make it 1-0, beginning a frantic 10 minutes in which four goals were scored.
Before the scoreboard could be changed, Gruner equalized. Four minutes later, Granite Hills’ Kenny St. Pierre headed in a free kick from defender Chris Rogone. Four minutes after that, Cate sophomore Avery Schwartz drew a penalty kick that Boateng converted for his first goal.
“Our first 30 minutes was fantastic,” Boateng said, crediting his coach’s scouting report. “As soon as they get a goal we get it back.”
The Rams’ offense slowed down from there, only scoring on Boateng’s scorching laser from 35 yards out that rose into the upper-right hand corner of the goal.
“I think we’re disappointed because I felt we played well today,” Schwartz said. “They were a good team but I feel like if we had been able to maintain our first half performance that we could have won.”
Woods scored the Cougars’ final five goals, his fourth coming off an almost identical free kick from Rogone. The hat trick came on a breakaway goal that came off a steal from Cate’s defensive line. Woods has 24 goals so far in his senior season.
The Rams finish their season with a 10-3-2 record.
“It’s kind of frustrating but you just have to find a way to change it around so that you get something out of it,” said Boateng, who’s only a freshman.
