WATSONVILLE—Watsonville High senior Mateo Arias will occasionally make the switch from forward to the midfielder position at any given time for the Wildcatz boys’ soccer team.
Not a problem for him at all.
But during Thursday night’s CIF NorCal Regionals Division I semifinals, he was asked to fill in for another role.
It was a rare situation but he didn’t hesitate one bit as he threw on a pair of goalie gloves and an orange practice jersey late in the second half.
The move paid off for the No. 2-seeded Wildcatz after Arias made the game-sealing block in the ninth round of a penalty shoot-out, helping them to a 7-6 (2-2) victory in penalty kicks over No. 3 De La Salle High in front of a packed house at Emmett M. Geiser Field.
Watsonville (18-4-3), the Pacific Coast Athletic League’s Gabilan Division champion, will play in Saturday’s championship match at top-seeded Whitney High in Rocklin at 5pm.
Arias, who was in tears after the penalty shoot-out, was carried off the field by his teammates following his valiant performance.
“It felt amazing, that memory I’ll keep it forever,” he said. “I’m just lost for words, honestly. I’m so happy that we won, that I was able to contribute to the team and this was all a team effort, really.”
Arias put together one of the craziest stat lines of the 2021-22 high school soccer season. He scored two goals in regulation, blocked a couple of shots on goal, made his attempt in the penalty shoot-out and then blocked two of the Spartans’ shots in the PK marathon.
Arias stepped in for backup goalie Jore Magleleno, who initially replaced starter Edgar Angel after he came out of the game with a rib injury.
Arias, who began his soccer career as a goalie, said the coaching staff had all the trust in the world in him. It was all the confidence he needed to overcome the butterflies rolling around in his stomach.
“I had to step up for the team and I knew I was going to do it,” he said. “I don’t know, I feel like the emotions rushed in, reminiscing about the four years I was playing here. It all just came to me.”
After the game, Watsonville coach Roland Hedgpeth said he wasn’t sure who would be the starter for Saturday’s match against Whitney.
“We couldn’t have carried this game any farther,” he said. “There’s nothing left to do after all those penalties. If we would’ve scored a little bit earlier, we kind of let them stay in the game and then we got in the game … then when they hurt our goalie, we didn’t know what to do.”
Hedgpeth added that he’d never gone this far in a match and been so emotionally invested until Thursday night.
“This was just fought to the end,” he said. “Both teams were tired and we just told our team, ‘Hey, just suck it up for another 15 minutes and don’t do what your body says, do what your mind says.’”
At the beginning of the match, senior forward Oscar Herrera was the spark plug for the Wildcatz once again after he almost scored in the first two minutes.
Watsonville continued to attack led by senior center back Lombardo Flores who crossed it to Arias but his shot also missed the mark.
Seconds later, Arias got a second chance. This time he connected with a header for the score in the 14th minute after receiving the pass from Sebastian Abonce, giving Watsonville a 1-0 lead.
Junior midfielder Cooper Kennedy nearly put De La Salle on the scoreboard after he snuck past the defense for a wide-open shot that sailed far to the left.
Just before the halftime break, Angel went down with a chest injury in the 37th minute after Charlie Hogan collided with him on a free kick attempt by the Spartans.
De La Salle took advantage of Angel’s absence and JP Hernandez scored in stoppage time, tying the game at 1-all.
The Wildcatz defense slipped up and allowed Hernandez to slide past a pair of defenders after receiving the pass from Tony Torres.
Watsonville took another blow on the defensive end when senior Jorge Gutierrez came out of the game with an ankle injury. He returned in the second half but then immediately went back to the bench.
“It gave them a little momentum,” Hedgpeth said. “We had to readjust a few things, we had to readjust Mateo [Arias] playing up front and then Jorge [Gutierrez] got hurt.”
Watsonville made just the right amount of adjustments to recapture the lead. Senior forward Sergio Jimenez crossed it to Arias who heel-kicked it in for a goal in the 45th minute that put the ‘Catz ahead 2-1.
The lead quickly evaporated after the Spartans responded with a goal in the 50th minute. Torres took a free kick and the ball slipped past Magleleno after he wasn’t able to secure it, allowing De La Salle to tie the score at 2-all.
The Wildcatz were stunned for the first time in the postseason. Some players also began to show signs of frustration and in one situation it almost backfired on them.
Senior defender Isaac Vargas was called for a foul in the penalty box. It set up Hogan, the Spartans’ leading scorer with 15 goals this season, with the chance to give his team their first lead of the match.
Instead, he missed the penalty kick and minutes later his teammate, Leo Bravo, was called for a yellow card midway through the second half.
From then on, it was a battle to see who would make the first costly mistake. Both teams had ample opportunities to score, including during the 15-minute overtime period.
However, it took a penalty shoot-out to settle the score.
Flores and Herrera both missed their penalty kick attempt, putting Watsonville in an early hole.
Vargas almost had his shot blocked by the De La Salle keeper but the rebound went in for the score. Abonce followed up with a strike that hit the back of the net.
De La Salle senior defender Jordan Kennedy had his shot blocked by Arias, who then came through with a goal on the ensuing kick for Watsonville.
Yahir Alcantar, Antonio Alvarado, Luis Velasco-Vasquez, Sergio Esteves all made their shots for Watsonville and it was up to Arias to finish it off.
Arias blocked the first attempt by senior Noah Schwenger but it was negated after the officials determined the goalie did not have his feet on the line prior to the kick.
It didn’t matter. Arias blocked the second attempt and he swiftly made his way to the sideline, awaiting for his teammates to celebrate with him.
“We practice every day with penalty kicks,” he said. “I don’t know, I just guessed right and went the same way, luckily.”
The Wildcatz will now take on Whitney (20-2-2), which earned the No. 1 in the D-I field, and defeated No. 4 Reedley, 4-2, in Thursday’s semifinals.
The Wildcats are ranked No. 8 in the nation, No. 2 in the state and No. 1 in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section according to the MaxPreps website. They are led by senior forward/midfielder Brayden Goularte, who has a team-best 22 goals this season.
Going into the match, De La Salle was ranked No. 39 in the state and No. 2 in the NCS.
Watsonville dropped from No. 24 to No. 28 in the MaxPreps state rankings, despite a win against Branham in last week’s Central Coast Section Open Division finals and a win against No. 7 Modesto in Tuesday’s D-I quarterfinals.
Alisal High was ranked No. 27 and it lost to the Wildcatz twice in the regular season along with a loss in the CCS D-I championship to Aragon High.
Hedgpeth, who just won his 10th CCS title, said Saturday will be the biggest game in the program’s history. Until then, he will try to get some sleep and regroup before making the three-hour trip just a little northeast past Sacramento.
Arias said he knows it’s going to be a long trek but it’s just part of the process to bring home the school’s first NorCal championship.
“I think right now we’re going to practice really well, we’re going to prepare well for Saturday’s game,” he said. “But we’ll be ready.”
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that De La Salle High junior Mateo Marchis took a shot that was blocked by Watsonville High senior Mateo Arias in the penalty shoot-out, which is incorrect. It was senior Noah Schwenger who took the shoot for De La Salle, not Marchis.
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