Trailing 2-0 with just three minutes to play, the outlook was dim for the SBCC men’s soccer squad on Saturday night in its Southern Cal Regional playoff opener with Hancock.
“It looked like we were down and out,” said Kalum Horne, a sophomore forward from England.
That’s when Horne went to work, scoring a penalty kick after getting pulled down in the box in the 88th minute, then finding himself alone just a few feet from the goal line and booting the game-tying goal with 40 seconds to play. Juan Sanchez sent a long pass to JC Guzman, who flicked it off his head. The ball caromed off the right post and right onto the feet of Horne.
The teams went through two 15-minute overtime periods without a goal. Hancock played the last 19 minutes with 10 players after Abimael Otero received a red card.
It went to penalty kicks and Vaquero goalie Yonha Adrabi rejected the first one, propelling the home team to a 5-4 advantage and a 3-2 win that sent them into Tuesday’s second round at San Diego City (17-2-3).
“It was nerve-wracking,” said Adrabi, the No. 1-ranked goalie in the state. “I think we were the better team throughout the game, we had more chances. We showed a lot of heart tonight. We fought it out.”
Horne, Nikolai Littleton, Chijioke Aranotu, Justin Saul and Roberto Santana all converted penalty kicks to help the Vaqueros improve to 16-3-2.
“We’ve been practicing PKs for about three weeks and that came in handy,” said Horne.
The Vaqueros played without Pierre Mattsson, their leading scorer, who broke his ankle and is out for the season.
It was the second straight meeting between 12th-seeded Hancock (12-6-2) and the No. 5 seeded Vaqueros. The teams had tied 1-1 on Nov. 12 when Littleton scored in the 88th minute.
On Saturday, Rosario Bras scored Hancock’s goals in the eighth and 75th minutes. He leads the state with 30 goals.
“When I saw three minutes on the clock, I thought we were out,” said coach John Sisterson. “We had good chances in the first half and we didn’t convert.
“We came back from the brink. Yonha’s save was critical.”
