Delhi’s historic soccer season comes to an end with loss in NorCal playoffs
The dream season for the Delhi High boys soccer team came to an end after a nightmare first half in the Northern California Division V quarterfinals on Tuesday night.
Kings City scored three first-half goals in a 3-0 victory over No. 2 seed Delhi that was stopped by the referee with about 5 minutes left in the match after a red card was handed out to a Hawks player and the Delhi crowd voiced its disapproval after being warned earlier in the match.
Delhi players had been given several yellow cards throughout the match, which also led to the early stoppage.
“Mentally it brought us down,” said Delhi coach Ismael Udave, whose team finished 15-2-5 overall. “To play well in this game your mind has to be right. You can’t be thinking about the refs or anything else. The refs did get in our head. They got in my head so can understand if they got in our players’ heads.”
Before the steady stream of yellow cards, No. 7 King City (11-6-1) took control of the match.
The Mustangs hurt the Hawks with long passes over the top of their defense, setting up scoring opportunities.
It took just four minutes for Victor Narez to score on a break away to give King City a 1-0 lead.
A Hawks player was whistled for a hand ball in the penalty box midway through the first half, which set up a penalty kick for King City. Senior Francisco Zavala deposited the penalty kick into the left corner of the net to give the Mustangs a 2-0 lead in the 27th minute.
King City’s Diego Narez tacked on a third goal in the 36th minute to secure a comfortable lead at intermission.
“They hurt us by being able to control the game and their long balls gave us problems,” Udave said. “We’ve had issues against teams that like to play those long balls.”
The lopsided loss and ugly ending doesn’t take away the historic season Delhi put together, which included the program’s first section championship since the school opened in 1998.
That was the message Udave told his kids after the game.
“This group is a family,” he said. “That’s what made the difference this year. We had some ups and downs, but our guys stuck together. We believed in ourselves and they believed what we were doing at practice and games. That’s what got us to where we’re at.”
Senior Rigoberto Ayala shed some tears after the match as he hugged some of his teammates. The Southern League MVP was proud of what his team accomplished.
“We’re leaving a legacy,” Ayala said. “We’re leaving with a bang. There was a lot of sweat, a lot of tears and a lot of hard work. A lot of us grew up together. Delhi is a small community so we all grew up together playing soccer. We made history for our town.”
