Stanislaus men’s soccer season ends in PK loss

Given the recent experience of the Cal State Stanislaus men’s soccer team in end-game penalty kicks, it seems natural that the Warriors would have had an advantage when Sunday’s conference title game blew through two scoreless overtimes tied 1-1.

In reality, that experience might have backfired.

With Cal Poly Pomona having been in the stands to scout Friday night’s semifinals, taking notes on where the Stanislaus players aimed their shots, the Broncos were able to blank the Warriors 3-0 in the shootout to claim the California Collegiate Athletic Association crown at Warrior Stadium.

“They had seen us in PKs the night before, and we told the guys they would be holding out hand signals telling the keeper which way the shots were going to go, and the coaches on the sidelines were doing that,” Stanislaus coach Dana Taylor said. “It’s so difficult anyway. You have the pressure of the PK and then knowing the opponent knows where you’re going to go. That goal becomes awful small.”

Stanislaus, which finished the season 6-8-6, needed a win and a lot of help from the NCAA to play beyond Sunday. Conference champions do not earn automatic berths into the men’s NCAA tourney in Division II, so even had the unranked Warriors won, they likely would have been done for the season.

Automatic berths are given to conference champions on the women’s side, a quirk in the rule that likely will keep the Stanislaus women out of the 48-team NCAA field despite going 12-4-1 and holding ranks of No. 5 in the region and No. 24 in the nation.

Two teams ranked lower than Stanislaus in the West Region – No. 9 Seattle Pacific and unranked Point Loma Nazarene – earned automatic berths in the six-team regional field by winning regular-season or conference tournament titles, likely dooming the Warriors to the status of being the best team sitting out when the brackets are revealed Monday afternoon.

Still, the Stanislaus men were playing for a conference title, and that was enough inspiration to spur one of the team’s best performances of the season.

Pomona (16-1-2) is the region’s top-ranked team, a likely regional host, and played that way to open Sunday’s title game. The Broncos established early control of the pace and scored 13:36 into the action when Daniel Garcia drilled a low cross into the left corner.

Stanislaus, encouraged by a lively home crowd of about 700, dictated the pace through the middle of the game and got the equalizer at 54:06. Senior Carlos Gavino stole the ball about 35 yards out, dribbled to the right side and fed Ramiro Ceja with a swift cross for a tying header.

Stanislaus had two more scoring opportunities, but eventually the weight of a third overtime elimination game in seven days stole their will.

“In the overtime, we really tried to get after it, but you could see that our legs, after playing an extra game, weren’t there,” Taylor said. “And in the second overtime, Pomona stuck an extra guy in the midfield and we were just hanging on.”

The Broncos outshot Stanislaus 5-1 in the extra sessions and had an apparent golden goal with 2:36 left in the second overtime waved off because of a late offside flag.

But in the shootout, it was all Pomona.

Stanislaus, shooting first, found itself in a hole when Gavino’s well-struck shot hit the crossbar. The Warriors’ next two shots, by Gerardo Cazares and Brady Taylor, were stopped by keeper Fernando Pablo Quevedo as Pomona’s shooters were hitting the back of the net.

“Walking up there, I was playing mind games with myself,” Gavino said. “I decided it would be better to hit it to the opposite side of where I shot last Friday. I needed to get that started for us and get it in the net, and I wasn’t able to.”

Gavino and goalie Clint Long were the lone two seniors in the Warriors’ starting lineup, a fact that bodes well for next year.

“For us to just get back here – our men’s and women’s programs have gotten to the upper echelon,” Taylor said. “We’ll have 13 seniors next year. We try and outwork our opponents, and we try to have a band of brothers who will play for each other – and then we let the talent show.”

This story was originally published November 9, 2014 at 8:06 PM with the headline "Stanislaus men’s soccer season ends in PK loss."