The steady rain didn’t bother SBCC’s Mark Knight at all on Tuesday night. In fact, he was looking forward to it.
“I love the rain, I’ve been waiting two years to play in the rain,” Knight said after scoring two goals in a 3-0 second-round victory over Santa Ana in the SoCal Regionals at La Playa Stadium.
“It finally came in my last home game.”
With a 20-4 record, No. 5-seeded SBCC travels to face No. 1 Mt. SAC on Friday with the winner heading to the state’s Final Four. The Vaqueros are playing as well as anyone right now, having won 13 in a row.
“That’s where we want to go,” said head coach John Sisterson, citing a close result against them last season as a confidence builder if the win streak wasn’t enough.
Knight tallied his 30th and 31st goals of the season, the first a header in the 16th minute off a Waid Ibrahim corner kick that put the Vaqueros up 1-0 early. Defender Kasper Dyg scored his first goal of the season on another corner kick – this one taken by Craig Davies – and SBCC had a 2-0 lead at halftime.
In the 60th minute, Knight made it 3-0 after he collected a loose ball 20-yards out and took it across the goal and hit it hard with his left foot, past the doomed Santa Ana keeper.
“What a kid he is. I tell you, he just keeps knocking them into the back of the net,” Sisterson said of Knight, who hasn’t committed to play at any four-year college yet.
It is the second time this season the Vaqueros have beaten Santa Ana, the first victory (4-2 at Santa Ana) coming way back on Sept. 2.
The Vaquero defense needs some credit too.
Santa Ana managed only two shots on goal the entire game and goalie Ricky Placencia recorded his sixth shutout in the last seven games.
And don’t forget Dyg coming up from the back row for the second header goal of the first half.
“We’ve been working on set pieces all week, so it was nice to see us score on set pieces,” said Sisterson, whose team seems to be clicking just at the right moment.
If the Vaqueros pull off the upset on Friday, the Final Four is being held at College of the Canyons on Dec. 5-7.
