Jack McBean’s head ended Carpinteria’s boys soccer season in a split-second.
After eighty-eight minutes of raw effort and emotion on both sides, the Corona del Mar freshman forward scored on a header in the third minute of the second overtime on Tuesday to give the top-seeded Sea Kings a 1-0 win over the host Warriors in the second round of the Division IV playoffs.
Carpinteria’s players could do nothing but exhaustedly fall to the ground with their heads in their hands.
“We go out on a sad note, but at the same time you’re playing the best team in your division and one of the best teams in the nation,” said coach Daniel Torres. “Losing to them 1-0 in overtime and having them on their heels for quite a while was a positive. The guys are gonna be sad for the next couple of days, but they’ll get over it.”
Carpinteria's Jose Sanchez follows through on a header in the second half.
Corona del Mar was ranked No. 5 in the NSCAA/adidas® High School National and Regional Rankings in early January, and is now 21-1-1 on the year. From the opening whistle, however, the Warriors made it known that the matchup was even.
Carpinteria was threatening enough in the first five minutes for Sea Kings goalie Connor Gaal to yell “What’s going on?” to his defense. The Warriors had four corner kicks in a 10-minute span of the first half, but couldn’t quite convert.
The chances went the other way in the first half as well, as UCLA-bound forward Reed Williams led an organized front for the bigger, more physical Sea Kings.
The physical play led to a yellow card for CDM’s Paul Zubatov in the 28th minute. The Sea Kings ended up with three on the day while the Warriors had two, and things were chippy throughout the match.
If not for an all-star performance from Carpinteria goalie Diego Gamez, the Sea Kings would have won the game in regulation. Gamez was lights-out the whole day, particularly in the middle of the second half when he made three highlight-reel stops in a 5-minute span.
One of them came when Williams had a clear look from close-range that Gamez sent away.
“He’s a great keeper. He was saving everything, and we kind of put our heads down because he was doing so good,” said McBean.
Carpinteria’s attack had Gaal on his toes as well, and nice runs were made by the likes of Tony Alvarez and Oscar Montes all day.
After an exhausting 80 minutes of regulation, sudden-death overtime began and each team got good looks early on in the first 5-minute period. Carpinteria’s Ramiro Vega got the best of all when he blasted a low shot to the near post from the corner of the box. It looked like it was about to sneak into the bottom corner of the goal before Gaal dove in front of it.
“I thought it was in,” said Torres. “I was already jumping up but their goalie came out of nowhere for the save. I have to give him credit on that.”
Two minutes before a shootout would have begun, Alex Mainthow rocketed a throw-in that Williams flicked with his head, and McBean was there to put it away as his team dog-piled on top of him.
The Warriors finished their up-and-down season at 11-6-2, and Torres was satisfied with how they went out.
“The were focused throughout training once the playoffs began,” he said. “They were looking forward to winning some games and making a run. Our assistant coach, Adrian Martinez, did a good job with the boys and it showed. Maybe we didn’t finish as well as we wanted to, but the chances were there.”
