Set piece defense bites Merced soccer in playoff loss

The Merced girls soccer team doesn’t have many shortcomings.

The Bears are led by a veteran midfield, have a proven back line and goalkeeper and opportunistic strikers. The only clear-cut way to beat Merced this season has come on set pieces. And unfortunately for the Bears, it’s not something they’ve cleaned up as the season has gone along.

That Achilles’ heel reared itself at a most opportunistic time in No. 2 Merced’s first-ever home playoff game on Tuesday night. No. 15 Downey took advantage of a free kick with the setting sun at its back in the 13th minute, forcing a Jessika McClesky save and then pouncing on a rebound. The Knights held on from there for a 1-0 victory in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II first-round game.

Downey will travel to No. 7 Folsom for a quarterfinal game on Wednesday while Merced is left pondering what might have been.

“I feel like we came out and played a great game,” senior midfielder Hannah Esquivel said. “We controlled the game, but those little mistakes can add up, especially in the playoffs. It’s tough because we wanted to do something special this year. We missed out on our first league title, and now we came up short in our first playoff game.”

An unlikely source proved the difference for Downey (11-5-3).

Porsche Rodriguez entered the game when one of her teammates was injured in the opening five minutes. The freshman found herself in the right place at the right time when Merced (14-5-3) gave away a bad foul about 35 yards out. Vanessa Marin sent a high arching shot on frame that McClesky had to find in the sun and then punch off the crossbar with a last-second save. She fell to the pitch on the save and was powerless to do anything about Rodriguez’s tap in.

“Set pieces have cost us all season,” Merced coach Bladimir Murillo said. “We gave one away in a dangerous spot and then it’s just poor man-marking that leads to them getting the rebound.

“Luck wasn’t on our side tonight. We hit the crossbar, had a couple balls go just wide. And you have to give them credit, they smartly wasted time in the second half and played their hearts out.”

The Bears outshot Downey 17-8 in the game, with six of the Knights’ shots coming in a 15-minute span after the goal. Other than that, the Merced pitch tilted toward the Downey net.

The Bears had no shortage of close calls, including Esquivel drilling the bottom of the crossbar in the 66th minute.

Merced thought it had its equalizer nine minutes later when Baylee Lawry’s free kick from midfield took a unexpected bounce off of the turf and forced a desperation lunge from Downey goalkeeper Alexandra Martinez. The ball spun away from Martinez (seven saves) and toward the goal line. She made a last-second dive into the goal to knock the ball back out. Neither the referee nor linesman made any indication on the play and, after getting together, decided it was no goal.

Golden Valley 3, Beyer 1 in Modesto – Megan Pust netted a hat trick in her first career playoff game as the 12th-seeded Cougars upset No. 5 Beyer on the road.

GV (13-6-3) will host No. 13 Cosumnes Oaks in a quarterfinal game on Thursday.

This story was originally published May 5, 2015 at 10:43 PM with the headline "Set piece defense bites Merced soccer in playoff loss."