Season ends for battered Skyline men's soccer

The last few weeks, the Skyline men’s soccer team has had nothing but bad timing and it culminated Wednesday with a 4-1 loss to West Valley in the first round of the California Community College Northern California regional bracket.

To say Skyline (12-6-2), the No. 14 seed, was banged up heading into the playoffs would be an understatement as the Trojans were missing five starters Wednesday, four of whom got hurt in the final few weeks of the regular season. The list included a starting forward, starting center midfielder and starting center back.

And the back-up center back who moved into the starting role and was on the field at the start of the game Wednesday? He went down with injury in the opening 20 minutes. Not surprisingly, West Valley’s offensive surge coincided with the loss of Jacob Hartmann.

“[Losing Hartmann and missing five starters] was huge,” said Skyline head coach Gabe Saucedo. “We had to play guys out of position. … We just picked up too many injuries (late in the season).”

Despite all that, Skyline started the game strong as the first 25 minutes were mostly played in the midfield, with occasional forays into the penalty box, as both teams sized up each other.

And in the 23rd minute, the Trojans opened the scoring. A long through ball was sent up the left flank to a streaking Adan Moreno Valencia on an overlap run. He carried the ball to the end line before cutting in on goal, getting his legs taken out to draw a penalty. Dan Lulseged stepped up for the spot kick and stutter-stepped his way to a shot low to the right corner for a 1-0 lead.

Two minutes later, the Trojans nearly duplicated the play, this time with Gerardo Murillo making the long flank run. He angled his attack at the top of the box, but pulled his shot wide of the goal.

“Our game plan was to defend their No. 10 (Miguel Moreno) and to get the ball forward quickly,” Saucedo said. “The first 20 minutes, we followed the game plan.”

But failing to convert that second chance came back to haunt the Trojans because, in the 27th minute, No. 19 seed West Valley (9-8-2) tied the score at 1-all.

While Skyline did a good job of limiting Moreno’s impact, the Trojans had no answers for Vikings’ striker Ricardo Tovar, who scored twice and set up a third.

It was his run at goal and back pass that resulted in the game-tying score. Tovar received a pass in the penalty box and won a challenge with the defender.

Tovar appeared hemmed in along the end line, but he sent a pass back out toward the top of penalty box, when Leonardo Morales came running on and hammered a shot off the crossbar and across the goal line to knot the game at 1.

That seemed to open up the game offensively for both teams, but over the final 15 minutes of the half, West Valley started gaining control of the midfield which translated into increased chances.

And then right before halftime, the Vikings took the lead for good on a tremendous hustle play from Tovar. Again, he made a run into the Skyline penalty box and was met by goalkeeper Augustin Duenas. Tovar won the 50-50 challenge, spun out of traffic and put a shot on frame.

The ball ricocheted off the left post right back to Tovar’s foot, who tapped it in to put the Vikings up 2-1 in the 43rd minute.

In the second half, the Vikings dominated as Skyline struggled to put even two passes together consistently.

When the Trojans did manage to gain possession, their attack over the top of the West Valley defense usually ended up with a defender easily heading the ball clear and the Vikings winning the second ball, as well.

“We’re not athletic enough with all the injuries,” Saucedo said.

Any hope of the Trojans perhaps pulling out a miracle win were dashed in the 62nd minute when the Vikings converted a set piece following a foul about 30 yards from the Skyline goal, on the right side of the penalty box. Moreno sent a perfect cross to the middle of the box where an unmarked Abrahan Fernandez slashed in and flicked with his head the cross into the far left corner for a 3-1 West Valley advantage.

“The third one was the backbreaker,” Saucedo said. “You can’t foul in the defensive third.”

Ten minutes later, the Vikings put the Trojans out of their misery when Tovar scored on a breakaway for the final 4-1 margin of victory.

Despite the lopsided loss, Saucedo was happy to even get to the playoffs. The Trojans started the season strong before struggling in Coast Conference play because of the injuries.

“It was a brave performance (Wednesday). It was an uphill battle and the guys worked hard,” Saucedo said. “As a whole, I think we overachieved (this season). … Making the playoffs was really important. We basically had one sophomore starter and the rest were freshmen. It was good to get the freshmen some playoff experience.”

No. 21 Cañada 2, No. 12 College of the Sequoias 1 OT

The Colts posted the biggest upset on the first day of the playoffs with the win over the Giants in Visalia Wednesday.

Tomislav Jozinovic scored on a penalty kick with five minutes left in overtime to lift Cañada (10-9-1) to victory, which battled back from a 1-0 deficit in the second half.

COS (10-7-4) took a 1-0 lead in the 53rd minute, but the Colts tied in the 70th minute when Morgan Johnson converted a Diego Arellano pass.

In the second 15-minute overtime session, Nico Flores drew the foul in the penalty box that set up the game-winner for the Colts.

Up next for Cañada is another road trip to No. 5 Merced (14-3-3) Saturday.

Women’s soccer

No. 11 Cañada 3, No. 22 Modesto 0

The Colts opened Nor Cal tournament play with a win over the Pirates in Redwood City Wednesday.

After playing much of the first half to a stalemate, Cañada (15-4-0) opened the scoring just before halftime, when Courtney Simons scored off a Yara Gomez-Zavala assist to give the Colts a 1-0 lead at halftime.

Giselle Gutierrez doubled the Colts’ lead in the 59th minute when Simons weaved through traffic before dropping a pass off to Gutierrez. Emmiko Kimura rounded out the scoring in the 84th minute.

Cañada will now go on the road to take on No. 6 Lake Tahoe Saturday.