A historic win

Regardless of whether either school had won a previous Central Coast Section title, no one on either team this year had won a section crown.

And it took penalty kicks to decide a winner. Menlo misfired on its first PK, Hillsdale connected on all five of its chances, with senior captain Luke Lawton scoring the game winner on the final kick of the game. Top-seeded Hillsdale prevailed 5-4 over No. 3 Menlo to win the Division II bracket and the school’s first-ever CCS soccer championship — boys or girls — at Sequoia High School Saturday morning.

“It means the world to us,” Lawton said of winning the school’s first section soccer title. “I couldn’t imagine it ending any other way.”

And the season isn’t over for Hillsdale. The Knights drew the No. 2 seed in the Northern California Division III regional bracket and will host No. 7 Terra Linda-San Rafael (10-8-2) at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Terra Linda finished third in the Marin County Athletic League and lost to Tamalpais in penalty kicks in the North Coast Section Division III championship game.

While penalty kicks to decide to game is almost universally hated by everyone involved in soccer, it was really the only way to decide this one as both teams were evenly matched. After 80 scoreless minutes of regulation, during which there were very few truly dangerous chances, and 20 minutes of mandatory overtime, the teams lined up to decide the game.

Hillsdale won the coin toss and chose to shoot second. With the pressure on, Menlo’s first PK taker pulled his his shot wide left.

No one missed the rest of the way. Hillsdale took a 1-0 lead on a goal from Bernardo Chaparro, followed by conversions from Aiden Reyes, Christopher Lopez and Sineth Andrabadu. Menlo answered with PKs conversions from Blake Putanec, Gabriel Gil, Reed Sunwoo and Kieran Vazquez.

That left the game on Lawton’s left foot. He stepped up and deposited a shot into the right corner to set off a celebration as the Hillsdale players rushed to the stands to celebrate with the Hillsdale student section.

“I don’t know who wouldn’t be nervous in that case,” Lawton as he contemplated his penalty shot. “But we practice PKs a lot. We’ve been preparing for it.”

In the end, it was probably a fair result considering Hilllsdale (19-1-2) had the better run of play, especially in the first half, as Hillsdale controlled the midfield and possession. But Hillsdale, despite getting off six shots in the half, had only three shots on goal and none of those were particularly dangerous.

Menlo (16-4-3), meanwhile, was limited to just two shots as it was constantly defending against the Hillsdale attack.

But Menlo did have the best scoring chance in the game as Hillsdale turned the ball over just outside its penalty box, with a ball finding Carter Techel all alone at the top of the box, who wasted little time in blasting a shot that seemed destined for the upper left corner.

But Hillsdale goalkeeper Emi Lopez went to a full stretch to push the ball wide in first-half stoppage time to keep the game scoreless at halftime.

“Big-time (save),” said Hillsdale head coach Jaime Gomez. “It’s not about playing great all the time. It’s making sure you’re good at the right moment.”

Menlo came out much more assertive and physical in the second half and evened out possession.

“It just comes down to the mindset of getting out of the first half,” said Menlo School head coach Daniel Hicker. “We believed in who we are and we’re supposed to be here.”

And while neither team could mount much pressure on goal, Hillsdale’s Andradabu was giving Menlo fits on the right flank, getting off a couple of crosses.

Hillsdale nearly scored in regulation, however. In the 78th minute, Andradabu slid a perfect through ball that Anthony Pozzobon ran onto at the top of the penalty box. Pozzobon cut back to the middle and was setting up for a shot when the Menlo defender recovered and stole the ball away.

In second half stoppage time, it appeared Hillsdale pulled out the win, when Christopher Lopez scored on the second ball off a corner kick.

But Lopez was clearly in an offside position and the goal was wiped off.

Two, 10-minute periods of mandatory overtime didn’t result in a goal and the game went to PKs.

“Our mindset was to always win the game on the field, but we were ready for PKs,” said Gomez, who told his team as they broke its post-game meeting:

“You walked in this stadium today as contenders. You walk out as champions.”