Ice in their veins: Falcons win with some PK drama to open the playoffs against Elk Grove.
As soon as Cristian Cisneros saw his shot hit the back of the net, he started running off to the right of the pitch and he was soon mobbed by his Atwater High teammates. The Falcons celebrated a thrilling victory to keep their season alive. A victory that included an Atwater penalty shot in the final minute to force overtime and a match that eventually went to penalty kicks.
With the pressure of the entire season on their backs, all five Falcons called upon for penalty kicks, stepped up and delivered. Cisneros was the fifth and final player and he drilled the game-winning shot for the No. 8 seeded Falcons as they defeated No. 9 Elk Grove 5-3 in PK’s in a game that was tied 2-2 after overtime in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin Section Division IV playoffs on Saturday night at Dave Honey Stadium.
“I saw like 20 dudes running towards me,” Cisneros said. “It was crazy.”
Sophomore goalie Noah De La Rosa entered the game late toward the end of regulation and delivered the save of the night on Elk Grove’s third penalty kick attempt. De La Rosa guessed right and was able to make a save on Eddie Taylor’s shot. De La Rosa immediately leaped in the air and pumped his fist and let out several yells in celebration. “Honestly, that adrenaline hit me hard and hit me fast,” De La Rosa said. “I just wanted to win for our seniors.”
The Falcons (13-6-7) struck first when Jose Hernandez scored the first goal of the game in the 17th minute. However, Elk Grove (10-6-4) for two goals in the final 10 minutes of the first half to take a 2-1 lead into intermission.
It was a physical playoff matchup with a flurry of yellow cards handed throughout the match for both sides. “There were a lot of yellow cards,” said Atwater coach Matthew Brewer. “It was a stop-and-start game without a lot of rhythm or flow. A lot of fouls called, some of them you agree with and some you don’t, but our guys just kept working.”
It was looking bleak for the Falcons with time winding down in regulation until the Thundering Herd were whistled for a penalty on an Atwater ball sent into the box, giving the Falcons a penalty kick with about one minute left in the match.
With the pressure on, sophomore midfielder Ricardo Abundiz drilled the penalty kick into the net to set off a wild celebration as the Falcons’ pulled even at 2-2. “Ricardo has been doing that all year,” Brewer said. “He’s probably our most clutch player. We know it’s going to go in when he steps up.”
The Falcons had to play the two 10-minute overtime periods down a man after one of their midfielders picked up a second yellow card at the end of regulation. After two scoreless overtime periods the match went to penalty kicks with both teams choosing five players to take the shots.
Brewer said it wasn’t until a few days ago he started having the team practice taking penalty kicks because he only needed a few players practice them during the regular season. “Honestly, it didn’t go well,” Cisneros said. “I was surprised when I heard my name called and found out I was going fifth because I didn’t do well on my pens in practice.”
One-by-one Abundiz, Omar Elayle, Mark Turrey, Danny Cisneros, who is a freshman called up from the junior varsity team, and Cristian Cisneros all stepped up and made their penalty kicks. “I kind of knew who my guys would be but one got a red card and one was injured so that threw a wrench into my plan, but I guess I picked the right guys,” Brewer said.
Cristian Cisneros said he changed his shot at the last minute and even asked for a little help from above. “I saw the four people ahead of me all scored and Noah made that save, I thought, ‘Ok, if I make it we will all celebrate. If I miss it, we’ll continue on,’” Cisneros said. “I’m very faithful, so in my mind I thought, ‘Jesus, if you want me to make this then I will’ and I did. I’ll be honest I was going to shoot the other way but I saw the goalie make a little step to the right. I changed my shot at the last second, scored and saw everybody running towards me.”
The Falcons were the only MUSHD boys soccer team to advance out of the first round of the section playoffs on Saturday. Merced lost 2-1 to Pitman in the Division II playoffs. El Capitan dropped a 1-0 loss to Valley in Division III and Livingston fell 5-0 to East Union in Division IV.
Atwater will travel to No. 1 seed Granite Bay, which defeated No. 16 Tracy 3-0 in the first round. The quarterfinal match will be played on Tuesday at 6 p.m. “Honestly, this run that we’re on is going into the books and it’s going to be something I tell my kids in the future,” De La Rosa said. “This team is something else, man. It’s made me feel so much joy and excitement.”
Shawn Jansen is the MUSHD Program Manager Digital Media. He can be reached at Sjansen@muhsd.org.