Pitman High’s boys soccer team has entered uncharted territory this week. On Thursday, — the final day of February — the Pride relished the opportunity to practice and prepare for the program’s first ever appearance in a CIF Sac-Joaquin Section championship game.

It’s an accomplishment realized for No. 6 Pitman following a thrilling victory on the road against No. 2 Whitney on Wednesday night in the semifinal round of the 2025 Division II playoffs, where senior goalkeeper Isaac Padilla played the ultimate hero for the Pride in penalty kicks after the teams played to a 1-1 draw at the end of overtime.

Padilla, after surrendering the first two penalty kicks, denied two of Whitney’s last three attempts to secure a 4-3 win and secure his team a trip to Cosumnes River College in Sacramento on Saturday, where they’ll face No.1 Woodcreek at 1 p.m. His final save came after junior Keegan Pires made the go-ahead goal in the shootout, more than an hour after scoring the Pride’s only goal in regulation.

While most players on the field, fans in the bleachers and those watching online were stressed, Padilla relished the opportunity to be in the spotlight.

“I was excited for the penalties, man,” Padilla said. “I mean, for a goalkeeper to get a game winning save, there's nothing bigger. There's not a better feeling than that.

“I’ve been in penalty situations before with my club (Turlock Sports Park), and there’s been times where we've won and also times where we lose. But when it comes to penalties, I feel confident in myself.”

After his clinching save, he ran out of the box to let out a jubilant roar towards the Whitney student section, who had been heckling for much of the game.

Pires was also on the receiving end of heckles. He was public enemy number one after his 19th minute goal to put the Pride up 1-0. Pitman ran a set piece with Noah Shamoon and Zach Looney on the outsides, but Pires, one of the intended targets, couldn’t get to the ball in time. When a Whitney defender headed it out towards midfield, Pires happened to be waiting to fire the ball into the lower left corner of the net.

Struggling to generate any offense against Pitman’s defensive line, paired with Padilla’s stellar goalkeeping (he finished with five saves in regulation and overtime), the Wildcats finally cashed in during the 69th minute on an Elikai Aluli-James goal. The next 30 minutes were physically and mentally draining, and the emotions only built as penalty kicks progressed.

After the Pride’s first two misses in the penalty period, Pires knew that there was a chance his attempt would decide the winner.

“I immediately thought I was going to be the winning pen, so I had my mentality ready, to go straight to the corner,” he said. “I was so ready to bang. When I heard their whole lacrosse team screaming at me, I was like, ‘Oh, let's go.’ I was so hyped.”

He promptly buried the kick into the left side of the net.

“My strategy was to walk up, look to the right and just swing it across my body,” Pires said, who has also experienced the thrill and agony of penalty kicks with his club team, Academica Juniors. “I usually walk up to get the keeper uncomfortable and just swing it across, and it worked.”

The Pride have played with that fearlessness and confidence throughout the postseason. Padilla feels as if they’ve played with house money since the middle of Central California Athletic play, where at one point they were in fourth place and on the outside looking in on the playoff picture. But they ended their regular season winning four out of the last five games, including a 1-0 thriller against champion Turlock on the final day of conference to qualify for the postseason with a third-place, 6-3-1 league record.

“I think once we realized there was a chance we couldn't make playoffs, it went through our heads how our season was going to end,” Padilla said. “Once we made playoffs, I feel like everybody just felt that second chance and we just didn't want it to go to waste. Not a lot of people get second chances, and now that we did, we just want to make it worth it.”

They’ll reap the rewards on Saturday when they play the top-seeded Timberwolves, who will enter with a 14-2-5 overall record after defeating No. 5 Downey (Modesto) 3-1 on Wednesday. The Pride improved to 17-4-2 overall after knocking off Whitney.

Regardless of Saturday's championship result, each team will be playing next week in the CIF NorCal Regional Tournament. The top two finishers from Division I through III automatically qualify.

“We’ve known that no other (Pitman soccer) team has made it this far,” Pires said. “We knew that we could make history, and we were just ready. And we’ll be ready to make more Saturday.”

Franklin 5, Turlock 2, in Elk Grove

Also in action Wednesday night was Turlock, the fifth seed in the Division I bracket. Like Pitman, they were on the road for a semifinal match that entered overtime.

The extra minutes were not as kind to the Bulldogs, as their opponents, top-seeded Franklin of Elk Grove, scored three times over the final 20 minutes to secure a 5-3 win and advance to the final.

The Bulldogs quickly found themselves in a 2-0 hole after 20 minutes of play in regulation, but mustered a pair of goals from junior Luis Llamas and freshman Manuel Ocegueda in the final five minutes of the first half.

A grueling and emotional scoreless second half got the best of the Bulldogs, particularly leading scorer Sebastian Carbajal. The senior with 14 goals on the year was forced to exit the game after a second yellow card, and the powerhouse Wildcats took advantage of the shorthanded defense in overtime.

Scoring twice for Franklin was senior Mason Reyes. Others who found the back of the net were juniors Landon Roberson, Marcos Zarate and Joseph Ochoa.

Turlock junior goalkeeper Kevin Ramirez tallied four saves on the night.

With the loss, the Bulldogs ended their season with a 14-7-3 overall record and this year’s CCAL crown. The Wildcats, meanwhile, improved to 20-2-1 and will play the No. 2 Davis on Saturday, who defeated No. 3 Central Valley of Ceres by a 3-1 score on Wednesday night.