St. Francis soccer battles back to secure playoff spot with win
LA CAÑADA — St. Francis High’s soccer team made it difficult on itself in its quest to secure a playoff spot in the final game of the regular season Wednesday against Alemany.
Needing a win to finish in third place in the Mission League and to secure an automatic postseason berth, things looked bleak for Golden Knights after they fell behind by two goals in the second half.
However, in a dramatic turnaround, St. Francis scored three goals in a 16-minute span to pull out a 3-2 victory against the visiting Warriors.
The victory in the regular-season finale nailed down third place for the Golden Knights (6-9-5, 4-4-4 in league). Alemany (10-9-3, 5-5-2) had already locked up second place in league prior to the match.
It was the second straight comeback for the Golden Knights, who scored two goals in the final five minutes Monday to earn a 2-1 league win against host Chaminade.
“My concern as a coach is that we wait until we go down 2-0 to start going hard,” said St. Francis Coach Glen Appels, whose teams have missed the playoffs just twice in his 27 years. “But the best thing is that both at Chaminade and here tonight, we kept fighting, and I give our guys a lot of credit for that.”
A goal by Michael Harrington in the 31st minute gave Alemany a 1-0 lead, an advantage it carried into halftime.
The Warriors made it 2-0 six minutes into the second half on a second goal by Harrington.
That two-goal deficit seemed to wake up the Golden Knights.
Liam Snashall made good on a penalty shot 52nd minute to cut the deficit in half.
Eight minute later, St. Francis’ Alex Berberian scored the equalizer on an assist from Neil Markey.
The winning goal was scored in the 28th minute. Michael Guzman centered the ball from the right side, the ball went into a group and Snashall flicked it on goal. An Alemany defender tried to clear the ball but instead ended up knocking it in.
Alemany had a prime chance to tie the score in the 32nd minute, but was thwarted by a fantastic save from St. Francis goalkeeper Mark Garcia. On a powerful shot from 30 yards out, Garcia left his feet, went high and to his right and, while laid out, was able to flick the ball away.
“At halftime, we talked about it and we knew if we didn’t come out strong, this was going to be the end of our season,” said Garcia, who made eight saves. “So our guys flipped a switch, something happened, and we were able to come back to score the three goals.
“Especially for us seniors, we didn’t want our season to end tonight and we wanted to make the playoffs.”
