‘This was our moment’: Looney hat trick wins Pitman first ever boys soccer section title
Zach Looney is a senior playing varsity soccer for the first time.
A Sacramento State commit, Looney has played the past few seasons with the Sacramento Republic FC’s youth development program. Because he was on that team, which plays and practices year-round and does not take a break in the winter, he could not play high school soccer at Pitman, per California Interscholastic Federation rules.
It’s a decision many high-level soccer players across the state make, opting to focus on college recruitment by playing in front of scouts weekly. If their recruitment does not pick up until their senior year, they may never step foot in a high school varsity practice.
So, with his college commitment already in his back pocket, he made the tough decision to leave Sacramento Republic, hoping to bring glory to the hometown team.
“I decided to quit that team because I wanted to have a lot of fun and play with some of my best friends,” Looney said. “It was a tough decision because I had to say goodbye to my close friends (at Sacramento Republic), but I wanted to play in Turlock, with Pitman.”
Safe to say, both he and the Pitman High community are happy with his decision.
Looney and the No. 6 Pitman team upset their way to an appearance in their first ever section title match. Playing in the Division II bracket, they won their first-round home matchup against Merced and the played road games, upsetting No. 3 Grant and No. 2 Whitney on the way to Saturday’s section title match against top-seed Woodcreek.
In one of the first big moments of his varsity career at Pitman, Looney was brilliant. He scored a first-half goal, giving the Pride an early 1-0 lead, and netted a pair of penalty kicks in the second overtime to lead the Pride to a 3-1 win over the No. 1 Timberwolves. The victory earned the Pride their first boys soccer blue banner.
“I’ve always felt the support from all of my close friends,” Looney said. “Without them, I wouldn’t have been able to play in those big moments. They got the two fouls at the end of the game and they trusted me to take the penalties, so all the credit to them.”
Pitman did not think it was a six seed.
The Pride were ranked No. 3 in the MaxPreps Sac-Joaquin Section Division I rankings, but were placed in Division II by the section seeding committee and given a No. 6 seed. head coach Manny Romero says the placement was “shocking,” but the team was ready to show it was better.
“We felt, in a way, disrespected. We weren’t sure how the ranking worked, but that fueled us,” the coach in his third season said. “We knew we weren’t a No. 6 team. We knew that they were gonna doubt us, and that was our fire. We took that and ran with it.”
The upset-minded Pride executed Romero’s game plan to perfection.
They wanted to play off the outside, attacking the Timberwolves’ left side and getting chances in. A team with a lot of depth, Pitman wanted to press offensively, hoping to wear out a Woodcreek side that rarely made a substitution. They held Woodcreek to its lowest-scoring output this postseason.
“Tactically, these guys stayed in it the whole game, and that’s what we asked of them,” Romero said. “You have to be mentally and tactically prepared to do anything the game demands, and this team has done that all season.”
And then there was Looney, who tightroped the out-of-bounds line in by the goalpost to score Pitman’s first goal and calmly executed on penalty kicks to deliver his team the win. He did all that after recently coming back from an injury. At times during the game, he stopped at the Pride sideline for extra fluids and to take puffs of his inhaler. Goalkeeper Isaac Padilla, a game after coming up big in penalty kicks in the semifinals against Whitney, made big saves again during regulation.
“He’s a future D-I player. Big-time players show up for big moments,” Romero said. “Him along with our other captains, Isaac and Davian (Lizarraga). They support them and they’re good leaders for this team.”
When the final whistle blew at the end of a tough, gritty, physical 100 minutes, the Pride realized they made history.
“I’ve been with these boys for three years. This group of seniors and even some of the juniors have seen everything we’ve been trying to prepare since 2022,” said Romero, who also serves as an assistant coach at UC Merced in the fall. “They were ready. They knew coming into this moment, it was our moment to take over.”
On Tuesday, the Pride have a chance for more when they play in their first ever Northern California Regional playoffs. They await their seed, which will be released in Sunday’s bracket reveal on the CIF state website.
