How Patterson boys soccer went from a loss in the section final to regional champs
The Patterson boys soccer team didn’t know they’d get another shot.
After playing Vista del Lago in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III Championship game, they thought the Eagles would be in a different division for the CIF Northern California Regional Championships.
“We were surprised not only because we were in the same NorCal regional division, but (we were on) the same side of the bracket to finish it off,” Patterson coach Luis Torres said. “So, one, (Vista del Lago) got a bye week and then two, we ended up playing them right after our first victory against Chico.”
This was a revenge game. Their only loss this season was the section’s Division III final and the Tigers knew what they did wrong.
“I told the guys, ‘You guys beat Vista, everything else is pretty much there for you’,” Torres said. “In my opinion, Vista is the best team overall that we faced all year next to Clovis East.”
After a first round Northern California Regional win over Chico under their belt, Torres and Patterson made a tactical change for the rematch with the first seed in the Division III NorCal state bracket.
“We threw another guy up top,” Torres said. “We put more numbers up front and we just had more opportunities that way. We still had to defend the long ball but it meant that we were gonna hustle the first 20 minutes hard and try to get a goal or two and that’s what happened.”
The Tigers beat Vista del Lago 2-0 in the Regional Semifinals en route to capturing the school’s first Northern California regional championship.
“We went undefeated for a long run and after that first loss, we knew that every team could lose,” said senior midfielder Antonio Gallegos. “We didn’t want our season to end on an L the second time.”
Bouncing back from a loss
After a season filled with nothing but winning, for Patterson’s first loss to be in the section championship was hard to take.
“Since this is a really senior-heavy team, most of us were in tears,” said senior defender Luis Fernandez. We were sad. It was our first loss and in the most important game. It sucks it had to be that game.”
However, they didn’t dwell on it for long. They didn’t have time. The two Sac-Joaquin Section finalists earned a berth to the CIF Northern California Regional Championships and practice started Monday. They had to get back to work.
As they started watching film on other teams, the Tigers started returning to the mindset that took them through the first 20 games with a 19-0-1 record. The team set a standard: Regional Final or bust.
“We were kind of like, ‘How could we lose a game at this point? We should get to another final’,” Torres said. “Our confidence came back and our level of focus grew. We knew what we had to do, it was just a level of focus that we had to maintain the whole 80 minutes.”
The Tigers beat Chico, which won the Eastern Athletic League, 3-2 in the first round and won their rematch with Vista del Lago in the semifinals, setting up their second trip to a championship game in two weeks.
The game that won it
When it counted, Patterson showed why it finished the season as the No. 16 team in the state. The Tigers offense flowed and their speed was too much for Aragon’s back line to contain.
They scored three goals in the NorCal Regional Final and shut out the Dons to complete their historic season.
Gallegos, Luis Maravilla and Johan Mendoza scored, Jonathan Gallardo finished with two assists and Mendoza added one.
“It just showed how much we wanted it,” said Mendoza. “It’s like we won 3-0, not everybody goes into a final winning 3-0, you know, so it just showed how much we wanted it.”
The last time a Patterson team played in a championship game was the 2009 Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV Championship, beating Hilmar, 3-1. They did not compete in the CIF Regional Playoffs that season because they competed in soccer during the fall.
“There was no NorCal after that (for us),” Torres said. “So this year not only did we make it, but we just made history overall. It was just a huge accomplishment. Not just for the program, but for the whole school and the community.”
It’s a community that has been behind them every step of the way. Many of the seniors have played together since they were little and the home stands fill up for games.
“We get the support because they want to encourage us to get a little bit further than just the first or second round,” Torres said. “We usually see the whole community and we saw it again this year.”
They travel well, too. Torres recalls a large contingent of Patterson fans at Aragon for the final.
“I just felt really proud to win something with my hometown,” Fernandez said. “Not a lot of people get to do that and since we’re the first ones, it’s even more special. And it’s our senior year, we’ve all been friends since we were kids. It’s all we’d think about.
This story was originally published March 12, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
