El Toro Pulls Off Another Upset

After 117 minutes of soccer on Friday, El Toro had left another league champion in its wake.

The visiting Chargers defeated Esperanza, 2-1, in overtime, giving El Toro its second upset in the Division I boys’ soccer playoffs.

With three minutes remaining in the last of four 10-minute overtime periods, El Toro’s Sem Lopez began a short run toward the Esperanza goal but was knocked off the ball by defender Ryan Deshiens as they battled shoulder to shoulder.

The referee, who had ignored similar contact in the box earlier in the game, signaled for a penalty kick. Junior Julian Gaitan fired the ensuing shot past goalkeeper Ryan Fikse for the winning goal.

It was the second sudden-death victory in three days for El Toro, which defeated Century League champion Santa Ana Valley, 2-1, in a wild-card game on Wednesday.

“Our whole goal this season was just to make the playoffs,” El Toro Coach Ken Sjobom. “We started the season 1-8, we lost our assistant coach midway through the season [he quit] and these kids have stayed positive the whole time.”

What made the victory even more impressive was El Toro played a man down all of the second half and through the overtimes.

El Toro defender Wes Sjobom intentionally used his hands to knock down a header that was headed for the El Toro goal late in the first half, earning a red card and giving Esperanza a penalty kick.

Aaron Colacion took the shot and slipped it past goalkeeper Josh Saunders, tying the score, 1-1, with just a few seconds left in the half.

The Chargers (11-10-2), who had taken a 1-0 lead three minutes into the game when Lopez headed in a cross from Gaitan, played better with one less player.

Esperanza (16-6-1) let several good scoring opportunities get away, and El Toro’s defense also took away a few.

The best defensive effort was by junior Chris Dickson, who slid in behind Saunders after he fell out of position chasing a loose ball. An Esperanza player got there first and fired it at the goal, but Dickson stuck out his left foot and knocked it away.

El Toro will play Palos Verdes Peninsula in the second round Tuesday.