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Saturday, Nov. 07, 2009

Soccer reigning champs fall to Downey

Golden Valley upsets Stagg in PKs

Cristian Alvarez slowly walked off of the field with his head down and his jersey draped over his left shoulder.

The senior midfielder had produced spectacular moments of creativity and skill in his time at Merced, but one last feat of magic just wasn't in the cards.

The defending Sac-Joaquin Section Division I champs couldn't overcome a poor opening half against Downey on Friday afternoon and its title defense spoiled quickly with a 2-1 defeat.

"After we scored the first goal, we started playing kind of lazy," Alvarez said. "Next thing you know they get two goals and it was finally a wake-up call.

"We put pressure on them in the second half, but we missed shots from the six. It wasn't our day."

That didn't appear to be the case early as Merced found the back of the net just 16 minutes into the first-round matchup.

Alvarez chased down a through ball on the right wing and then beat a pair of defenders before being taken out from behind.

Octavio Murillo cashed in the ensuing free kick, curling a left-footed shot into the right corner of the net from about 23 yards out.

It would be Merced's only shot of the half.

"We just didn't shoot the ball enough," Merced coach Bart McAfee said. "Even in the second half we didn't shoot a lot.

"You can't score if you don't shoot and we proved it.

"We didn't have a good practice yesterday and the kids came in and just watched things happen."

The Merced defense sparked Downey's first goal with a turnover near the midfield stripe.

Midfielder Francisco Chavez raced down the right wing before hitting striker Alex Padron with a pass in the middle. Padron buried his shot into the right corner.

Downey took the lead just two minutes from the half on a corner kick.

Merced goalie Andrew Jaurique came out to intercept the cross, but the ball glanced off of his hands.

It caromed to a wide open Sam Bell at the far post, who headed it home.

The 2-1 halftime deficit did light a fire under Merced.

Downey went into a defensive shell with the lead, but Merced managed to find a few cracks.

Merced's two best chances came about 20 minutes into the second half, both created by Alvarez.

He set up Freddy Hernandez with a clever little back heel from about 8 yards out, but Hernandez's blast was turned away by Downey goalkeeper Luis Magana.

Hernandez sent a cross to the top of the 18-yard box a few minutes later, finding an open Hector Berber.

But Berber couldn't get his chance on net. Merced forced Magana to make just two saves in the match.

Golden Valley 1,

Stagg 1 (5-3 PK)

STOCKTON -- Golden Valley defeated Stagg 5-3 on penalty kicks in the first round of the Division I playoffs on Friday afternoon at the University of the Pacific.

Golden Valley (17-2-2) struck first in overtime but Stagg answered three minutes later, and the game eventually went to penalty kicks.

Memo Ramirez gave GV the advantage early when the goalie stopped Stagg's first penalty kick.

All five players scored for Golden Valley during the penalty kick shootout.

Golden Valley advances to a second-round match on Tuesday.