SACRAMENTO – Manuel Guerrero got the ball rolling for the Turlock High School boys soccer team at Cosumnes River College Stadium on Saturday.
The senior wing player for No. 4 Turlock, which won the Central California Athletic League title, took on No. 2 Davis in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Boys Soccer Playoffs – Division I title game on Saturday night. Turlock held the lead – for only four minutes. Then the Blue Devils, from Yolo County, posted a 2-1 win over the Bulldogs to win its second section banner in four seasons.
“We talked about getting an early goal in the second half,” said DHS assistant coach Danddy Jebri. “It came a little later, but we got the job done.”
Turlock (14-4-4 overall) scored its only goal of the game in the 18th minute when Guerrero, from the side of the box at the south end of the stadium, landed the ball into the back of the net for a brief 1-0 lead.
Davis (14-4-3) recorded the tie at the 22nd minute when forward Subhan Rahimi found his way into the box of the Bulldogs’ net and sent the ball into the net.
In the 59th minute on the pitch, DHS midfielder Zachary Schroeder had a corner kick. The ball found its way to Blue Devil midfielder Krisztian Anderson, who passed the ball to another midfielder in Cruz Gonzales. Near the front of the Bulldog box, Gonzales punched the ball into the back of the net at the south end of the stadium for the goal and a 2-1 lead.
Turlock did all it could to get the ball onto the other side of the field and near the Blue Devils’ net in the final 21 minutes of the game.
The Bulldogs, in the final five minutes of the game, had two chances when there was a corner kick or throw in, all players including defenders toward the front of the Blue Devils’ net. But various DHS players intercepted various passes on the ground and air and moved the ball back to the south end of the stadium.
“You go ahead with (21 minutes) left in the match… we’re going to hold the lead,” Jebri said. “We were a little bit more defensive. If Turlock was going to look for an equalizer, it’s going to have to be off a free kick.”
Bulldog goalkeeper Mayolo Banuelos was busy at the net, recording five saves.
CIF NorCal
Despite the loss, Turlock earned a berth in the California Interscholastic Federation NorCal Soccer Championships by simply reaching the section title game.
The brackets will be released on Sunday on the CIF State’s website – cifstate.org. Click on the Soccer tab to view the brackets.
State championships
Starting this year, the CIF State will conduct its first-ever state championship games that will be played at Natomas High School of Sacramento on March 13-14. Northern California winners will face the Southern California in their respective divisions in the regional title games.
-Mike Bush is a multimedia journalist who was born and raised in the Turlock area. Contact him at mikebushmedia@gmail.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @MikeBMultimedia and Instagram: mikebushmedia.
