Cathedral City Uses Reserve Power to Defeat Sonora in Overtime

Chris Young scored with two minutes left in overtime to give Cathedral City a 2-1 victory over Sonora in a Division III boys’ soccer semifinal Tuesday.

The Lions (23-2-2) will face Santa Margarita in the final at Cerritos Gahr this weekend.

“That was huge,” said Young, a sophomore, of his first varsity goal. “I expected to mostly sit on the bench.”

Young did not expect to play a lot when he was called up from junior varsity with three games left in the regular season. He came into the game in overtime when Coach Rick Sherwood rested his starters to keep them fresh in case of sudden death.

The game was marked by defense. Defender Nathon Ballard headed a Cathedral City shot over goal, then made a sliding block of another shot. But Ballard was caught in the wrong place in the 55th minute, when Jaime Lerma’s shot deflected off a sliding Ballard to put the Lions ahead, 1-0.

Ballard had a chance to make up for that play after an obstruction penalty was called in the Cathedral City goalie box. The indirect free kick was passed to Ballard, who knocked the ball into the upper left corner.

Sonora (17-8-2) had the bulk of the scoring opportunities after the first half and had a chance to take the lead early in the second overtime, but Jose Camarillo’s shot hit the crossbar.