Benicia High’s boys soccer team made its playoff road a lot tougher Wednesday night after settling for a 1-1 tie with visiting Bethel at Drolette Stadium.
The tie left Benicia (4-3-2 SCAC) one point ahead of Vallejo (4-4-1) for the third and final playoff slot allotted to the Solano County Athletic Conference with one game remaining. Vallejo wraps up the regular season next Monday against Bethel (2-6-1) while Benicia hosts first-place American Canyon (6-0-3) for Senior Night at Drolette Stadium. If Vallejo beats Bethel and Benicia doesn’t beat American Canyon, the Panthers would find themselves out of the playoffs for the first time in several years.
“Now Monday is a must-win game for us if we want to make the playoffs,” said Benicia head coach Javier Martinez.
Benicia had beaten Bethel in 19 straight meetings prior to Wednesday but didn’t take advantage of scoring opportunities when they were there.
“This was a very beatable team and we did nothing,” BenMartinez said. “We didn’t get corner kicks and didn’t create enough opportunities. We just can’t get any consistent play. We played individually and stood around and watched a lot, and when you do that, you tend to no be too successful.”
Landon Elfstrom gave Benicia a 1-0 lead in the first half when he scored off a breakaway and the Panthers had three other shots in the half carom off the post. But Benicia fell flat in the second half and the Jaguars managed to tie things up on a penalty-kick goal.
Leave a Reply