Despite a 1-0 loss to Pitman on Thursday night in the final Central California Athletic League match of the regular season, Turlock High’s boys varsity soccer team walked off the pitch as champions.
The boys soccer playoff scenarios for CCAL teams were clear heading into Wednesday night. Turlock was in the driver’s seat, sitting atop the standings with a 7-1-1 record and slated to play Thursday night against the third-place Pride (5-3-1), who needed the win to secure a postseason slot. Meanwhile, Downey was in second at 6-1-2, needing to win or tie against last-place Modesto High on Wednesday and the Bulldogs to lose for a chance at the CCAL crown.
But things went awry for the Knights, who shockingly lost 2-1 to a Panthers team that was winless against conference opponents. The result meant that, regardless of what happened Thursday, the Bulldogs had clinched their first league title since the 2019-20 season.
The champions knew that Thursday was not a night to take off, though, as playoff seeding remained at the forefront of their minds, as well as an opportunity to deflate the hopes of their crosstown rivals. Their best efforts in windy, wet conditions weren’t enough, as a 56th minute goal from junior forward Giancarlo Nakamura was the only score of the night and catapulted the Pride into the playoffs.
Nakamura’s goal was one of just four shots on goal attempted by the Pride over the course of the night. The speedy Nakamura received the ball from senior midfielder Zach Looney about 15 yards in front of the net with just a defender to beat, and once he gained a slight advantage, blasted a looping shot over a diving Matthew Lopez.
“I was right there running in front of the box, and I knew my teammates would find me,” Nakamura said. “The shot was wide open for me, and I just had to finish.
“I had a feeling I was (scoring today). I was telling my friends I was going to ruin (Turlock’s) night. I had to do it.”
Prior to the score, both teams struggled mightily to create any momentum, as ball passed or shot towards the north end of the field consistently sailed out of bounds, while action on the south end was derailed by balls taking unexpected turns mid-flight. There were also the occasional slips by players on the wet turf.
After the goal, the Bulldogs blitzed, stringing together four shots on goal in the last 20 minutes. Two were saved by senior Isaac Padilla while another two missed wide. Defenders did their part by intercepting and kicking the ball back towards midfield on multiple occasions.
“Our guys played their butts off defensively,” said Pitman head coach Manny Romero. “They were trying to win the ball in the air, trying to win the ball in set pieces. Today, we knew what it took and the whole line did their job against a very good team.”
Turlock mustered a game-high seven shots-on-goal. Assistant coach Juan Ocegueda felt as if the weather shouldn’t be an excuse for not getting on the scoreboard.
“It’s tough to play in. It really is,” he said. “But it’s nothing different. We experienced this and dealt with this all year. It’s all about executing, playing our style of soccer, with touch, passing, crossing, and we had chances there. That’s soccer, though.”
As other teams have until Tuesday to wrap up their regular seasons, Turlock and Pitman will each use the next few days to rest, heal up, and tighten up any flaws.
“This is a special team,” Ocegueda said. “It’s all them. It’s all a matter of working hard every day and playing together as a team to help us win this league. Now, we start from scratch and try to build off what we did well the last few weeks and make a run.”
Playoff brackets for division 1-6 will be released on Wednesday.
Romero is hoping that his team, who are 14-4-2 overall, have done enough to not have to compete in a play-in game and instead jump right into first-round play, which kicks off Feb. 19.
“Hopefully we can take it all the way, become state champions,” Nakamura said.
Turlock beats Pitman in girls’ game to force play-in
Quite the opposite took place across town as the girls from each team clashed at Pitman High School.
Senior forward Megan Coelho and junior fullback each scored to help the Lady Bulldogs defeat the Pride, 2-0. The result put Turlock into a tie with the Pride for third place in the CCAL standings with matching 5-4-1 records.
The CIF Sac-Joaquin Section bylaws state that the top three teams from the conference will advance to the postseason. The CCAL’s General Sports Regulations state that if there is a tie, the two teams’ records are compared head-to-head, though they split the season series 1-1. The teams then have to compare their records against the highest ranked teams in the conference, in order from the top down until there is resolution. Well, they had the same record against common opponents.
The regulations state that the respective head coaches have already voted in the preseason to either play a one-game playoff at a neutral site to determine the final spot or have MaxPreps.com’s final regular season rankings be the tie-breaker.
There was uncertainty regarding how the tiebreaker would be handled, and it was officially determined Friday night that a play-in game would be necessary.
CCAL Commissioner Ed Felt confirmed that the game will be played at Pitman High School at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. The winner will then have the privilege of waiting for full playoff brackets for all six divisions to be released on Wednesday.
Pitman has a better overall record and winning percentage (12-5-1, 0.694%) than Turlock (11-6-3, 0.625%), though the Bulldogs are currently listed higher than the Pride in the standings based on goals scored against conference opponents — 27. The Pride scored 21 in league this season. Each team allowed 16 scores.
