Last-minute strikes. Quick equalizers. Desperation defense. Yellow cards. Injuries. Timely saves. Smack talk. And, to top it all off, the ultimate drama of a penalty shootout. The second installment of the 2019 Hillsborough Rivalry, boys’ soccer edition, featured a little bit of everything. For the second straight meeting between Orange and Cedar Ridge, a second-half comeback set up a tense round of penalties, and for the second-straight meeting, Cedar Ridge prevailed.
A victory in the rivalry match would have been critically important for two teams that are on the fringe of HighSchoolOT’s current 3A soccer playoff projections. On Monday night in Hillsborough, the Red Wolves (6-9-1) withstood a steady barrage of Orange (6-10) offense and overcame a late Panther goal before winning the shootout 4-3 to seize the match 3-2, sweeping aside the Panthers for the first time since 2016.
In front of their home fans, with a few of those white “Beat the Ridge” shirts sprinkled throughout, the Panthers turned in a fairly dominant first half, but were never rewarded for their efforts. They controlled nearly all of the possession through the first 20 minutes and set up plenty of long-distance shots, most from either the right foot of Jose Beltran-Reyes or the left of Jason Franklin, but nothing got close enough to goal to trouble Cedar Ridge goalkeeper Ty Corbin. Finally, the unrelenting pressure resulted in a breakthrough in the 31st minute, as Franklin laid in Tyler Werden with a perfect through ball in the left half of the box, but Werden was flagged for offside as he converted his chip shot over a sprawling Corbin. Beltran-Reyes hit a curler just over the bar with about four minutes left, and the teams headed to halftime with the score still deadlocked at zero.
After halftime, something changed. After a first half with plenty of chances but no real tests, both sides upped their game almost immediately. Cedar Ridge opened the second half with a long-range bid from right back Bryan Dock, but it sailed over the bar. A few minutes later, Werden was deemed offside again on a header attempt to finish a rush, but he would not be denied. Eight minutes into the half, Werden was played into the attacking third. Surrounded by three Red Wolves defenders with a fourth one crashing in, Werden somehow spun around and lobbed the ball over the goalie for the opening score.
Cedar Ridge looked stunned, but not for long. Barely two minutes later, the Red Wolves were on the attack, forcing Orange goalie Jonathan Cowan to knock a low shot away. But with Cedar Ridge’s Nick Frank crashing in, Cowan couldn’t control the ball, and Will Mendoza swooped in to knock it home at the far post to level the score. Orange protested that Frank interfered with Cowan, but to no avail.
After a frenetic first ten minutes, both teams settled down for a while until Cedar Ridge found its breakthrough when Frank was played in perfectly, guided towards goal behind two defenders. Frank did the rest, slotting home his sixth goal of the season in the bottom corner to Cowan’s right. With 16 minutes to play, the Red Wolves had the lead. Orange nearly equalized a few minutes later, but Connor Blankford made a sliding play to deny Beltran-Reyes a glorious opportunity at the right post with Corbin out of position.
Still protecting the one-goal lead, Cedar Ridge continued to push forward, forcing a goal line clearance off a corner and threatening Cowan with a bid by Alex Jackan with two minutes to play. The Panthers knew they were running out of time. Cowan set up the goal kick after the Jackan miss, and, less than half a minute later, the Panthers passed the ball through their defense, past midfield, and into the stride of Elliott Sikes racing down the right sideline. With one big windup, Sikes blasted a shot around Corbin and into the back of the net from an impossible angle, tying the score at two apiece with 1:06 left to play. Beltran-Reyes got one more shot on goal with 20 seconds left, but Corbin did well enough to knock it away, sending the Hillsborough Rivalry to extra time for the second straight time.
The best chance of extra time came in the first minute when Orange’s Jerry Velazquez got an early shot on frame that Corbin parried right into the path of Franklin, but the Cedar Ridge defense was up to the task. Both offenses were quiet from there, setting up the ultimate drama that is the penalty shootout. Corbin and Cowan exchanged a cordial fist bump as they prepared to play their roles in the five-round showdown. The Red Wolves had to operate without co-leading scorer Reese Weaver, who had departed in the second half after a hard collision with Kobe Thompson that earned the Panther defender the game’s only yellow card. Instead, Garcia, the other co-leading scorer, led off with a confident goal. Leif Mahaney, who left the game himself with an injury on two separate occasions, returned to equalize.
Back and forth it went. Dock scored and Thompson equalized in a battle of defenders. Beltran-Reyes finally had a reward for his relentless pressure with a goal following a Mendoza miss to put the visitors ahead 3-2. Dean Allen responded for the visitors, but one more Orange goal might have been enough to make the difference. The Cedar Ridge contingent began clapping for Corbin, and he came through, getting all of a Luke Phillips shot that came straight down the middle.
It was down to round five. Frank calmly slotted his attempt past Cowan to put Cedar Ridge ahead. The crowd went silent. Orange senior Rohan Kasthuri stepped up to the spot and confidently – or, perhaps, casually – strolled up and curled the ball to the right post – and wide. Corbin, who had dived to his right, threw his arms in the air. The Cedar Ridge huddle at midfield exploded and rushed to join their goalie. As they raced past him at full speed, Kasthuri, seemingly in slow motion, fell to the ground.