‘There’s really no words.’ No. 1 Livingston bounced from soccer playoffs on penalty kicks
The loss was shocking as it was sudden for the Livingston High boys soccer team.
Many Wolves players were in tears, some sprawled on the field after top-seeded Livingston was upset 1-1 (4-3 PKs) by No. 8 Dixon on Tuesday night at the Livingston High football stadium in the second round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs.
“Futbol, that’s what we like to call it, not soccer.” said Livingston coach Francisco Hernandez. “You’re going to have times where it makes you happy and there are going to be times where it’s hard and it makes you cry. You always have to take it as a lesson. You live and you learn and you move forward. That’s all you can do.”
The Wolves (16-4-1) looked like they had finally broken through late in the match when junior Ezekiel Padilla scored on a counter attack to give Livingston a 1-0 lead over the Rams in the 64th minute.
The Wolves just had to hold Dixon scoreless the final 16 minutes, which seemed probable considering Livingston hadn’t given up a goal in its previous five matches.
However, the Wolves were forced to play a man down when Padilla received a yellow card for celebrating when he removed his jersey after scoring his go-ahead goal. It was Padilla’s second yellow card of the game, which resulted in a red card, which brings with it an ejection.
Dixon managed to score a goal with less than a minute left in extra time on a scramble in front of the net to force over time.
“At the end of the day we let down.,” said Livingston senior defender Gerardo Castro. “We let down on the gas and it was our fault at the end. The ball bounced off one of our defenders. It might have been me, I don’t even know at that point. It hit the cross bar and then bang the other guy got it.”
It was a different position for the Wolves to be in after outscoring their last nine opponents 58-7.
“As soon as we got that red card we let down,” Castro said. “We started defending for some reason instead of playing the way we usually do.”
Hernandez said he was proud of his players held off Dixon in the two 10-minute overtime periods with just 10 players.
That forced the game to go to penalty kicks.
Livingston had to battle back from an early deficit in penalty kicks after Armando Santiago had his attempt stopped and Aflonso Alvarez hit the left post.
However, Livingston’s Beau Brummell made his penalty kick to cut the Dixon lead to 3-2 and freshman goalie came up with diving save to keep the Wolves alive.
The Wolve’s David Lozano was successful on his attempt to tie the penalty kicks at 3-3 to send it to sudden death.
Dixon made its attempt and Livingston’s Navvir Singh was stopped on his attempt, which set off a wild celebration by the Rams.
Dixon was moving on to the semifinals against No. 5 Woodland on Thursday and Livingston’s season was over in a flash.
“There’s really no words,” Hernandez said.
“I don’t think anybody ever wants it to end this way,” Castro added. “It is what it is at the end of it. We really really can’t change it.”
