A disappointing season came to a disappointing end for Benicia High’s boys varsity soccer team after a 1-0 loss to visiting American Canyon on Monday at Drolette Stadium.
The loss – coupled with Vallejo’s 1-0 victory over Bethel on Monday – dropped Benicia (4-4-2) into fourth place in the Solano County Athletic Conference, two points behind Vallejo (5-4-1) for the third and final conference berth into the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs. It’s the first time this millennium Benicia High’s boys soccer program won’t be participating in the postseason.
“We don’t deserve to make the playoffs,” said Benicia head coach Javier Martinez after Monday’s defeat. “We never found a rhythm and it was always one problem or another this year.”
American Canyon (8-4-6 overall, 7-0-3 SCAC) finished tied with Vanden (9-2-3 overall, 7-0-3 SCAC) for first place and shared a co-championship. A tiebreaker will determine which team gets the SCAC’s No. 1 seed for the Section playoffs. Vallejo will be the No. 3 seed.
The Panthers played right with American Canyon through a scoreless first half but couldn’t capitalize on opportunities. The Wolves got an opportunity early in the second half and pounced. Senior captain Carlos Martinez sailed a free kick into the middle of the penalty area and fellow senior Oscar Olvera picked the ball up and blasted in a goal one minute into the half.
“We weren’t first to the ball and sometimes the motivation has to come from the players,” Martinez said. “The ball isn’t going to come to you.”
Benicia had a few chances to tie the game, including in the final seconds when foreign-exchange student Mikkel West sent a wicked shot just over the crossbar. Benicia pulled its goalkeeper in the final minute but never did find the net.
A tie against the Wolves wouldn’t have been enough for Benicia, anyway, after Vallejo’s win over Bethel.
The Panthers made the playoffs every year under Martinez until this season.
“Our inability to play as a team was how our season went,” Martinez said. “Making a bunch of fancy moves doesn’t score any points. We were chasing too many passes.”
The Panthers may be better next season. Benicia had only five seniors on this year’s squad, and the junior varsity won their SCAC championship with a 9-1 record, winning their final nine games of the season.
“Our future looks good,” Martinez said.
The Wolves’ boys soccer program is just the fourth varsity athletic team in American Canyon’s short history to win a SCAC title.
Leave a Reply