Crystal falls in PKs

“Last year said the same thing — (penalty kicks) are a coin flip,” said Crystal head coach Roberto Miranda. “It’s part of the game.”

Kristian Bisgaard opened the penalty kick portion of the game with a goal for second-seeded Crystal, followed by goals from Daniel Laws and Evan Collins before Branson’s 6-6 goalkeeper Nico Machotka-Farley made a save.

Branson, meanwhile, also made its first three spot kicks before missing and the team went to the final round of the open five shots tied at 3-all.

Lucas Shotts followed for Crystal’s fourth penalty goal, which was matched by the Bulls. But the Gryphons’ misfired on their sixth attempt, with Machotka-Farley making his second save before Sebastian La Duc clinched the Nor Cal championship for the Bulls.

It was a disappointing end for Crystal (20-3-2), which was on the front foot for most of the second half and the golden-goal, 15-minute overtime period. Branson (13-6-3) was fortunate to get the game to penalty kicks because the Gryphons dominated the final 45 minutes of field play.

The teams were copies of each other, with both relying on long throw-ins and set pieces to drive their attacks. Crystal struggled to get much going in the first half as the Bulls controlled possession. While not super technical on the ball, Branson did a better job of knocking the ball around and getting the ball into the attacking third before the Crystal defense would stand up the Bulls and clear the ball forward.

The Gryphons’ attack suffered when striker Danté Martin was forced off the field after 20 minutes because of a nagging hamstring injury. Additionally, attacking midfielder Shotts had a hard time getting on the ball and was not much of a factor in the opening 40 minutes.

Collins was arguably the Gryphons’ best attacker in the first half as he made several penetrating runs on the left flank, but Crystal struggled to get anything into the Branson penalty area.

With the teams so evenly matched, any mistake would be magnified and it was a Crystal error that gave the Bulls a 1-0 lead at halftime.

With less than 10 minutes left in the first half, Branson’s Cooper Little was pressuring the Crystal defensive line. He blocked not one, but two, clearing attempts, pouncing on the loose ball in the penalty box after the second one and had just goalkeeper Max Slavet to beat — which he did put the Bulls up at the break.

“The margin for error is going to be small,” Miranda said.

But Miranda made some adjustments at halftime and the Gryphons looked exponentially more dangerous in the second half.

“In the second half, what we said was, try not to attack on the flank,” Miranda said, adding the Bulls had shifted their offense to shut down the Gryphons’ crossing game.

Instead, Miranda wanted his team to attack Branson in the middle of the field.

“There was space in the center channel, so we started working one twos,” Miranda said.

Give-and-gos in the middle of field sprung the Crystal offense. In the 50th minute, Bisgaard sent a perfect diagonal pass to Collins on the left flank, who had a step on his defender and angled in on goal. Just as he got his shot off, a Branson defender came across and made a sliding deflection as the ball went wide of the goal.

Two minutes later, a Bisgaard header off a throw-in went just wide and 10 minutes later, the Gryphons’ best scoring chance was denied when the Gryphons earned a free kick, but Bisgaard’s bid for the equalizer was denied by Machotka-Farley.

With 13 minutes left in regulation, Crystal finally got the game-tying goal. Earning a free kick about 30 yards from goal, Ben Fair chipped a cross into the box. In the ensuing scrum, the ball ended up on the foot of center back Jimmy Naylor, who moved up into the attack. He managed to get off a shot from six yards out that got through traffic and beat Machotka-Farley to tie the game in the 67th minute.

Neither team could mount much over the final 15 minutes of regulation and they went to a 15-minute, golden-goal overtime period.

The Gryphons dominated extra time, getting off five shots.

“We could feel it (a second goal coming),” Miranda said.

A Collins shot from the right flank a minute into the extra period was saved. A minute later, a Bisgaard header was pushed over the top of the goal by Machotka-Farley. In the 85th minute, Machotka-Farley denied a free kick from Bisgaard.

On the final play of overtime, Shotts had a golden opportunity to end the game as the ball dropped to his foot at the top of the penalty box on a long throw-in from Naylor, but Machotka-Farley made a diving save to send the game to penalty kicks.

“I only ask for everything and they gave everything,” Miranda said of his team. “We win together, we tie together, we lose together. ... Extremely proud of the boys.

“The CCS championship was the goal. Everything else was extra.”