Bay Area high school soccer round: Pittsburg knocks off Bishop O’Dowd, Menlo takes home girls title
OAKLAND – Don’t tell Pittsburgh it’s an underdog.
That’s a Pirates inspired recipe.
Pittsburgh boys soccer, ranked No. 9 in the NCS Division III bracket, ended its run to the division championship Saturday afternoon in Oakland, defeating No. 7 Bishop O’Dowd 2-1 on goals by Andres Gonzalez and Sergio Ramos.
Ramos’ goal, which came midway through the second half, set the Pitt bench on fire with a celebration that spilled over the center fence on O’Dowd’s mound, causing a delay before kickoff.
But the Pirates would not miss their chance. And in the final minutes, Pitt held off O’Dowd’s offense and kept chances at bay.
What is the reward? The ninth cloud.
“Working together with my team, it was difficult in the league (to play),” said Pitt coach Nahum Lozano. “In NCS, that’s different. NCS, we want to win every game. This attitude is the next step, and the next step was to win NCS.
“It’s hard to win NCS, whether it’s Division I, Division II, third, or whatever division. I’m very happy.”
It’s Pittsburgh’s first sectional championship since 2008, when the Pirates (10-7-8) won the NCS Class 3A title.
Luke Sweeney scored the lone goal for O’Dowd (10-7-6) in the first half.
“This is the season where we didn’t do well,” O’Dowd coach Marco Plascencia said. “And honestly, we’re trending in the right direction toward NCS. And the good thing is, we have one or two seniors starting, and we’re all freshmen and sophomores. So in that aspect, we’re going to be even stronger in the next couple of years, and that’s great.
“But it’s frustrating for the seniors that were there. We’ve built a reputation of being a good program over the years and won a lot of NCS titles, so it’s tough for them. But somebody has to lose, and we were that team.”
Menlo girls win CCS D-IV
Krista Arreola’s lone goal was all it took for Menlo School to win the CCS Division IV championship.
The Knights (9-3-7) downed Crystal 1-0 in the finals, using Arreola’s bottom-left corner beauty in the 12th minute to hold on and win the D-IV title for the second straight year.
“From the moment we arrived at the stadium, right off the bus, I saw that everyone was locked in their game,” said Arreola after the game. “Knowing that if we lost, it would be the last time we were together, that was a big part of the motivation. Our chemistry and how much we wanted it got us through the whole game.”
Senior Bianca Putanec recorded her eighth shutout of the season with three saves in goal.
Menlo advances to the CIF NorCal tournament after winning the division title. Crystal finishes with a 13-4-5 record.
Mitty’s boys fail
It was a tough day for the Archbishop Mitty boys team in CCS Division II.
The Monarchs lost 4-3 to Watsonville on penalties, unable to score a second goal after Gabriel Pirayou leveled Mitty at 1-1 in the 19th minute.
Mitty (19-1-2) took a narrow lead in penalty kicks when Watsonville (19-1-2) missed a second PK, but the Watsonville goalie erased that deficit with two key saves, including a fifth-round clinger as the Monarchs took the lead.
Nueva caught shut out by Watsonville in OT
Watsonville was the boogeyman for the Bay Area on the girls side as well, as the Wildcats defeated Nueva 3-2 on Jackie Cano’s winning goal in overtime to capture the CCS Division V title.
Cano’s second goal of the game. Nueva got goals in the second period from Julia Chen and Juliet Chen, both of whom were stopped by Patrice Graham-Martinez in sets.
Nueva finished 17-3-1. Watsonville is 14-5-1 and will see its season continue in NorCal.
Check back for updates on this story.
