Terra Nova takes down Bearcats

After a 2-1 win over host San Mateo Friday evening, Terra Nova is already half way to last year’s win total.

“Our boys are trying to get out of the Lake (Division),” Trayler said, referring to the Peninsula Athletic League’s lowest division. “Games like this (against a San Mateo team playing one level higher in the Ocean Division) proves they belong.”

Using a stingy defense that stood tall against a physical San Mateo attack, Terra Nova (2-1) weathered some early Bearcats’ pressure before turning the tables and scoring twice to lead at halftime.

San Mateo (1-2), however, had the first opportunity to take a quick lead as Edy Perez Mayen split the Tigers’ defense in the third minute, running on to a through ball with just the goalkeeper to beat.

But Perez Mayen’s shot attempt sailed over the top of the goal.

“That woke them (the defense) up,” Trayler said.

The attack gave the Bearcats a false sense of security, however, as they spent the rest of the half trying to beat the Tigers over the top. But after that near-miss, the Terra Nova backline of Mason Platzer, Jack Bayley, Eli Eskinazi and Aiden Leung — anchored by goalkeeper Trevor Hardeman, who finished with 10 saves — kept the Bearcats at bay by matching their physicality.

That allowed the Terra Nova offense to get into the flow of the game and a nice build up in the midfield midway through the first half produced the first goal of the game. Charlie Higdon’s flick a ball into space which enabled Porter Tulkin to latch on to the ball and break in on goal, chipping the ball over the goalkeeper for a 1-0 lead in the 21st minute.

Five minutes later, the Tigers doubled their lead off a set piece. Terra Nova drew a foul and San Mateo received its third yellow card of the first half along the left sideline. Theo Eskinazi sent a perfectly weighted cross to the middle of the Bearcats penalty box, where Fabrizio Mutti beat his mark and redirected a header on goal that the goalkeeper had no chance at getting to give the Tigers a 2-0 advantage, one they carried into halftime.

In the second half, San Mateo had consistent, sustained pressure on the Terra Nova defense, abandoning the long balls over the top and were much more effective in building through the midfield — especially through Perez Mayen.

“We regrouped in the second half,” said San Mateo head coach Matt Shea, who is in his second season with the Bearcats. “In the first half … it was lazy soccer and I think they realized you can’t just show up and win without hard work.”

But the Bearcats had nothing to show for it the Tigers consistently shut down San Mateo attacks.

They did dodge a bullet in the 69th minute when Hardeman came off his line to play a ball, but it was intercepted and partially cleared by a Terra Nova defender.

The ball went right to San Mateo’s Thomas Navarro Castillo, who unleashed as a shot as Hardeman scrambled back toward his goal, somehow making a kick save on the shot attempt.

But the Tigers couldn’t defuse all the attacks and the Bearcats got back in the game with about five minutes to play as they connected on a set piece in the 77th minute. Drawing free kick along the left sideline, San Mateo’s Alan Vasquez sent a cross into the middle of the Tigers’ penalty box. Hardeman knocked the ball down, but Perez Mayen was there to put the rebound away and the Bearcats were back in the game with three minutes of regulation and three minutes of stoppage time.

“This year he’s really put it together,” Shea said of Perez Mayen.

But there was no equalizer to come as the Tigers held on for the win.

“They know where they want to go,” Trayler said of his team.