Bears clinch Bay soccer title

That changed not so long after halftime, however, as M-A scored minutes into the second half and then made the goal stand as the Bears beat Aragon 1-0 to claim the Bay Division championship for the first time since 2020 with one game left on the PAL schedule.

“The pressure is off a little,” Mansell said. “I think both teams knew the moment.”

M-A (7-0-2, 23 points PAL Bay; 14-0-4 overall) held a two-point lead over Aragon (6-3, 18 points; 11-4-2) going into the match. Aragon needed a win or tie to keep their title hopes alive, while M-A had some wiggle room.

“They had to win,” Mansell said. “We could have taken it to Friday.”

Like two boxers early in a fight, both teams spent the first half sizing each other up, with neither team willing to take too many chances. The Dons had the better of it in the opening minutes of the game, earning a free kick in the sixth minute that was saved, but there wasn’t much more for the Dons in the half.

Likewise for the Bears. They earned a couple of corner kicks in the first 20 minutes, but neither amounted to much and the game was scoreless at the break.

“Both sides were timid (in the first half),” said Aragon head coach Daniel Arevalos. “Everyone knew what was on the line. The first half we were feeling each other out.”

In the second half, things opened up as both teams really started pushing for a goal. The Bears tried to catch the Dons napping on the second-half kickoff, as M-A sent a pass back to Manases Lara Alvarez, who used his booming right foot to launch a 70-yard shot on goal, forcing Aragon goalkeeper Jordi Dominguez Orozco to make a save.

Aragon responded with a chance in the 43rd minute as a long pass was made into the M-A defensive third. Pouyan Sheikh chased the ball down and had the goalkeeper beat, who rushed out to the top of the penalty box to get to the ball first.

But M-A defender Noah DeHaaf recovered and cleared the ball away to end the threat.

Minutes later, the Bears’ dynamic duo struck. Yandel Hernandez sent a perfectly weighted and timed ball over the top of the Aragon defense that found striker Nate Thurlow in stride and just the goalie to beat.

Dominguez Orozco came flying off his line to cut off Thurlow, who juked around him and easily side-footed a shot into the empty net for the game’s only goal in the 48th minute.

“They’re patient,” Arevalos said of the Bears. “They stuck to their game plan.”

It was the 19th goal of the season for Thurlow and the 11th assist for Hernandez.

From there, the game kind of devolved into a repeat of the first half, with the game being played mostly between the penalty boxes.

But over the final 10 minutes, the Dons had one last push and threw everything they had at the Bears’ defense — right about the time a steady drizzle developed. And with a wet ball and slick turf, anything could happen.

And it nearly did in the dying moments of the game. Much like he did earlier in the second half, Sheikh won a race to the ball with the M-A goalkeeper. With an empty net, Sheikh put a shot on goal from 25 yards out that was agonizingly just wide, apparently hitting off the post and cleared away for what seemed a corner kick.

But M-A argued that the ball had actually hit off the wheel of the portable goal instead of the post, which would have meant the ball was out of bounds for a goal kick.

The head referee and his assistant had a brief discussion and they ruled the ball, indeed, hit off the wheel that was stationed out of the field of play.

Despite the near miss and the heavy pressure, the M-A defense didn’t blink.

“We felt good up 1-0,” Mansell said. “And we’re comfortable defending with a lead.”

Arevalos could only lament his team’s missed opportunities.

“Tough game. It was an even game,” Arevalos said. “[M-A is] a very hard team to break down defensively.”