Cortez sends Merced soccer to section title game with OT goal

With one spectacular goal Omar Cortez sent the Merced High soccer team to the section finals.

Cortez booted a perfect shot from 25 yards out just over Cosumnes Oaks goalie Robert Sams with five minutes left in the second 10-minute overtime period to lift the No. 6 seed Bears (21-4-3) to a 2-1 win over second-seeded Wolf Pack on Wednesday night at Cosumnes Oaks High.

Merced will face No. 4 Vintage in the Sac-Joaquin Section Division II championship on Saturday at 2 p.m. at Cosumnes Oaks.

If Cortez had made a bigger goal in his life he couldn’t remember one.

“It might be, it’s my senior and I didn’t want this to be my last game,” Cortez said. “I had to make up for my last opportunity. I got the ball, made one touch and then let it rip. Awesome to see it hit the back of the net.”

Cortez’s heroics saved a visiably fatigued Bears team that was trying to fend off a hard-charging Consumnes Oaks squad looking to repeat as section champs.

The Wolf Pack had all the momentum after tying the game with about 40 seconds left in regulation. Ethan Krebs lofted a cross that sailed toward the goal. Merced goalie Saad Sohail tried to tip the ball over the crossbar, but the ball glanced off his hands, off the bar and in the net.

“It was just a nice cross,” Sohail said. “I tried to save it. I thought it was going over the post and then I tried to hit it over. I got a hand on it, but it hit the post and fell back in the net.”

Merced, which had been leading since Adrian Lomeli scored in the 34th minute of the first half, had to regroup.

“We did, you could just see all our heads were down,” said Bears coach Bart McAfee. “I told the guys we’ve got 20 more minutes. We’ve got to play. We can’t give up and we didn’t.”

The Bears had to fend off some scoring opportunities for Cosumnes Oaks in the first overtime as Krebs misfired on a shot and Nabil Kinbunguchy tried to head in a corner kick 3 minutes later but Sohail made a bobbling stop.

That set the stage for Cortez.

“His goal reminded me of our goal when we won the section championship,” McAfee said. “Christian Alvarez’s 30-yarder was just like that. It’s exciting to play for a championship. It’s the second time we’ve done it. It would be awesome to do it again.”

This story was originally published November 12, 2014 at 10:30 PM with the headline "Cortez sends Merced soccer to section title game with OT goal."