Diaz de Leon nets two of three first-half goals in 4-2 victory
over No. 6 Leland in quarterfinals
SANTA CLARA – The Gilroy High boys soccer team took one more giant step forward in accomplishing its championship dream with Saturday’s thrilling 4-2 victory over Leland in the CCS Division I Quarterfinals at Santa Clara High School.
“This team (Leland) has won the championship so many times,” Coach Brian Hall said. “I don’t know the exact number, but they’ve won it multiple times and, like their coach says, ‘Don’t beat my team unless you are going to win the whole thing.’ ”
The No. 3 seed Mustangs (20-0-5) scored three goals in the first half to stun the No. 6 Chargers (16-4-6) right off the bat. But Leland made a game of it, scoring back-to-back goals in the second half to cut the gap to one before Gilroy netted a fourth goal.
Up next, the Mustangs will play No. 2 Gunn (15-3-5) in Tuesday’s CCS Semifinal at PAL Stadium in San Jose. The game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.
“It was really important (to get off to a fast start). I think the whole first half we were controlling the game,” said junior striker Everardo Diaz de Leon, who scored the first two goals of the game. “Like what coach said, that score, 3-0 at halftime, is one of the worst scores because it keeps you nervous. You never know what’s going to happen in the second half.”
Diaz de Leon gave Gilroy the lead only 1:30 into the contest when he settled a throw-in from sophomore teammate Ben Alcantar at the top of the penalty box, turned to face the net, and blasted a perfectly-placed shot inside the far post.
“I received it at the top of the 18. I just turned. I saw the goalie in the first place, so I just took the shot,” Diaz de Leon said. “It’s great. It’s exciting. It’s beautiful. Everybody comes out with a lot heart. That’s what I love about this team.”
For his second strike, Diaz de Leon was on the receiving end of a sweet three-pass combination that started with senior Jorge Plata getting the ball deep to senior Javier Hernandez, who got the ball right to the feet of his attacking teammate.
“We knew where they were strong, where they were weak,” said Diaz de Leon of Leland. “We knew what they do and, in practice, we went over it and we just came out and played hard with heart.”
Gilroy’s constant pressure in the attack zone accounted for the third unanswered strike of the first half. With Hernandez rushing the net on a loose ball in the box, Leland fullback Ryan Villalpando got a foot on it, but beat his own goalie to give the Mustangs a 3-0 advantage. The goal was credited to Hernandez.
“The worst lead in soccer is 3-0 at halftime. That’s the worst result because your team gets too comfortable. The other team is going to get all pumped up and say, ‘It’s not over. If they scored three goals, we can get three,” Coach Hall said. “When you get a 3-0 lead, you try to change the way you play a little bit. You get more defensive instead of thinking about what’s going on. I think that’s what hurt us a little bit.”
The tables started to turn on Gilroy midway through the second half when Leland received a penalty kick because Mustang fullback Ismael Nava, who played tremendous defense, was called for a foul. Chargers junior Steve Beitashour scored to make the margin, 3-1.
Leland had new life and went on the offensive even more so, but senior goaltender Luis Esqueda kept coming up big. Since Esqueda is the shortest goalie in the section, the Chargers continually sent high shots his way. Nearly every time, Esqueda leaped up to tip the ball over the crossbar or wide of the post.
“His vertical is pretty good for a little guy. For a little man, he can get up. He can play forward and he wins a lot of head balls,” Coach Armando Padilla said. “All week we’ve been preparing for Leland’s style of play. They like to service a lot of big balls into the area, and all week we trained our goalies to prepare for those big balls coming in.”
The only one Esqueda could not get to was a perfect blast from Leland captain Sean Conners, who ricocheted a shot into the net off the corner of the post where it meets the crossbar.
“We got a little over-confident, but that was a great team,” Diaz de Leon said. “They played hard. They’re aggressive. They’re strong, everything.”
The Chargers quickly rushed back to the half circle with the momentum on their side, but Gilroy immediately dashed their comeback hopes with Hernandez finding the back of the net less than a minute later.
“We get a goal a minute and 30 seconds into the game and I think it really stunned them. And then they scored their second goal on us and we responded a minute later with another goal,” Hall said.
The Mustangs beat Leland for the second time this season. The two strong squads met in the Homestead Cup Semifinals, where they battled to a 2-2 tie at the end of regulation. Gilroy won in penalty kicks with its seventh kicker.
“We knew how they played since we played them before. Plus, I watched them play a couple of times. So we practiced all week on a style of play that we thought would take care of business for us and the guys executed,” Hall said. “Early in the game, we executed, we won the ball and counter-attacked. We used our speed up front to go right at them. The fact that we were able to practice it and get it in their minds two or three days ahead of time, that worked for us.”
