Palm Desert falls in first round to Newport Harbor
During last year’s magical run to the Division 4 CIF-SS title, the Palm Desert boys’ soccer team played a total of eight playoff games and put the school on the soccer map.
The title brings with it the glory, but it also usually comes with a bump up in division, and a much tougher postseason road. On Wednesday, the Aztecs, now up in Division 2, saw a different caliber of first-round playoff opponent as Newport Harbor put an abrupt end to this year’s postseason with a 4-1 win at Palm Desert in the first round of the CIFSS playoff.
While the loss was a painful one, especially after getting a heaping helping of the fun that goes with a long postseason run last year, by the time the team broke one last huddle after the match the tears had turned to smiles. The seniors went around the circle and gave one last hug to each underclassmen letting them know that this year was something special and that they had a new standard to maintain.
“To be honest, I’m leaving the field happy, even though it’s coming after a loss,” said senior captain Sebastian Hernandez. “Yes, we came out to defend our title and we’re in Division 2 and it didn’t happen, but we gave it our all in this game and all season. I think PD is wellknown now. We hit the map last year, and we’re still on the map. I couldn’t ask for a more wonderful four years with my teammates.”
The game started out with a nearbang for the Aztecs who came agonizingly close to getting the game’s first goal. The Newport Harbor keeper came out of his net to go after a loose ball, but a Palm Desert player got there first and knocked it away into space where a teammate was going to get to it first. An Aztec forward raced over and was able to get a shot on goal, but a Newport Harbor defender made a game-altering play, hustling back behind his goalie to kick the ball away just before it went into the net.
It was a huge momentum swing, and unfortunately for the Aztecs, the momentum stayed swung in the visitors’ favor for the rest of the half as Newport
Beach scored two goals in the next 10 minutes to take command of the game and never let go. The first goal came off a corner kick scrum in front of the Aztecs’ net when Jack Csergei knocked it home, and the second came on a beautiful throw in right to the head of Olivier Renard who was able to guide it past Aztec senior goalkeeper Michael Cornwell.
The Aztecs played even with Newport Harbor the rest of the half before a back-breaking late goal in the final two minutes when, again a throw-in to Renard, was headed along to Csergei who poked it into the back of the net.
First-year Palm Desert coach Aurelio Alonso said he could see the body language of his team change when they fell behind early.
“We started off very dynamic in the first five minutes and got that first shot on target, but when (Newport Harbor) scored, you could kind of see the energy go down in our team,” Alonso said. “Newport Harbor is a good team, but we’ve played that caliber of team before.
Somewhere in that first half we just got disconnected from the game plan.”
Not a lot changed at halftime for the Aztecs as the Sailors controlled the run of play for the first 35 minutes of the second half and added another goal to make it 4-0 when Landon Baker ripped one into the right side of the net.
Finally, in the final 10 minutes, the Aztecs gave their home fans something to cheer about. To their credit, Palm Desert didn’t go quietly and kept applying pressure. At long last, a ball in front of the net bounced to senior Miguel Jara who flicked it in to give the Aztecs their first goal with just under 10 minutes to go in the game. They applied a bit more pressure the rest of the way, but it was too late and Newport Harbor, in the end, was too good.
The loss marked the end of a season that included a share of the Desert Empire League title for the Aztecs -- something even last year’s team didn’t accomplish. It marked the end of the careers for a larger group of seniors, many of whom were part of that championship team last season. That list of seniors on the roster included Francisco Hernandez, Emiliano Vasquez, Sebastian Hernandez, Alex Lezama, Carlos Cervantes, Richard Placentia, Sebastian Orozco, Miguel Jara, Phillip Alvarado, Gaell Garcia, Dylan Coronado, fan-favorite Leland Ponce and goalie Michael Cornwell.
“After last year, there were a lot of expectations, and you realize, and I was with the team last year during that beautiful run, you really appreciate how everything has to go right to make a deep run,” Alonso said. “And this group rallied and got a league title and it looked like maybe things were going right for us again this year, but that’s sports for you. You’re riding a high and then all of a sudden it ends. But this was a special group of seniors and I’m proud of what they accomplished.”
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at shad.powers@desertsun.com.