Aragon and Carlmont, PAL Bay’s two top soccer teams, battle to draw

Pushing and shoving commenced between both teams. When the dust settled, Foster, Cervantes and Aragon sophomore Ryan Romano — playing in the first varsity game of his career — were ejected via red card.

“Every time when you play in league games, and you play the top teams in the league, it’s always going to be a battle,” Aragon head coach Nick Carrara said. “High school soccer’s always physical. Did I think there was going to be three red cards? No. But, did I think there was going to be a lot of hard challenges, and tempers flaring and stuff? Yeah. It happens out here.”

Carlmont head coach Ryan Freeman said he didn’t see Cervantes swing at Foster. He said he did think the Aragon advance was an offside, but that he couldn’t be certain as the referee had a better angle on the play.

“Two players collide,” Freeman said. “I think maybe our keeper felt like the guy unnecessarily went through him. And, 17-year-old boys, they get a little upset, that’s how it goes. I didn’t see any swinging — you know, I’m 70 yards away — it looked like there was a bit of a scuffle. Then once it starts, all chaos ensues. Then the red cards come out.”

With the game deadlocked 1-1 at that point, Aragon (2-0-1 PAL Bay, 7-1-3 overall) was suddenly at a tactical disadvantage, playing with nine players to Carlmont’s 10. The Scots were on the offensive for the rest of the contest, but Aragon hunkered down to keep the score tied.

“It was lots of pressure,” Aragon goalkeeper James Taylor said. “Down to nine players, it was crazy.”

Taylor — who subbed in for Aragon’s starting keeper Jordi Dominguez Orozco in the second half — turned in the play of the game two minutes prior to the fracas at the other end.

With Aragon tying it in the 49th minute on an equalizer off the foot of senior Marcelo Cruz, Carlmont (1-0-2, 8-1-2) quickly went on the attack. In the 52nd minute, the Scots played a ball in to earn a deep throw-in found senior forward Josh Lisi in the middle, who had a primary shot deflected by an Aragon defender. The deflection fell to junior Hudson Gates, who took aim at the top right corner of the goal. Taylor, though, saved the day by leaving his feet.

“I got a connection on the ball, but the defender was in a really good spot,” Lisi said. “And then [Gates], he had a pretty good connection, but again the keeper had it covered. That was one of our closest chances, for sure.”

Aragon denied the high-intensity Scots any other clean shots on goal. The only other good second-half chance Carlmont earned was in the 63rd minute, with a cross from deep in the corner. Taylor raced out to meet it and had it roll off his hands toward the back post, but the sophomore raced to the spot of the ball to cover it before the Scots could take advantage.

Carlmont struck in the first half, scoring in the 23rd minute on a gem of a counterstrike. Alexander Menchtchikov took control on the Aragon half and advanced up the sideline past midfield, and just kept going. His timing was sharp as he led Sean Bergen perfectly on a line with the left post. Then as several Aragon defenders converged, Bergen tapped a short cross to Kotaro Kikuchi, who redirected it in to give the Scots a 1-0 advantage.

“That was something our coach kind of drilled into us in practice, was switching the field as fast as we could,” Lisi said. “[Bergen] had a great run into the box and then dished into [Kikuchi], who had a nice finish. So, it was really nice to see the stuff we’ve been working on, we were able to apply that.”

Aragon turned up the intensity after the break and spent the opening 10 minutes of the second half on the attack. Junior midfielder Miguel Chavez earned the possession for the Dons by crawling up the back of a Carlmont player to control it. The Dons worked it up to junior Damian Samano Ocampo, who found Cruz right in front of the cage for the equalizer.

“Scored the goal, it gave us a nice little uplift,” Carrara said. “Then I think it kind of woke Carlmont up a little bit.”

For Carlmont, the draw was the team’s second in three Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division contests. The Scots opened Bay Division play last Wednesday with a 1-1 result against Half Moon Bay, following a similar pattern of scoring in the first half, and surrendering the tying goal in the second.

Aragon and Carlmont are the only two remaining teams in the PAL Bay without a loss on their respective records. The two teams have drawn four straight matches dating back to the 2021-22 season.

“I think both teams have their eyes on winning league,” Freeman said. “I think you could see that here. ... The stakes were high. But that’s what we want. We want to come in, we want to be pushed, we want to play the best teams. And they gave us a hell of a game.”