In one of the more improbable comebacks to win a championship you’ll ever see at any level, the San Benito High boys’ soccer team overcame all odds to capture the Monterey Bay League Pacific Division title on Thursday, clinching things with a dominating 3-1 win over visiting Monte Vista Christian in the regular-season finale for both teams.
With the victory, the Balers (13-4-2) earned a berth into the Central Coast Section playoffs for the first time since 1983 — or several years before any of the players on the team was born. San Benito received goals from Jose Lopez Munoz, Jorge Servin and Ricardo Becerra.
“It’s an amazing feeling, and thank God we were able to do it,” said Lopez Munoz, one of the team’s outstanding midfielders. “This was something we never thought was possible.”
Indeed, San Benito needed everything and anything to break right — and unbelievably, they did — to catch and eventually overtake Monterey. To wit: After a Feb. 4 loss to Christopher — a defeat that was later overturned into a win, more on that ahead — the Balers trailed Monterey by a whopping eight points in the standings.
Although they weren’t mathematically eliminated from winning the championship, the Balers needed nothing short of a minor miracle to come back and win it. Here’s how they got it done.
First, San Benito needed to beat Monterey in the teams’ second head-to-head contest on Feb. 11. Check. Then the Balers needed to win the rest of their games and hope Monterey either lost a match or had a draw along the way.
Check. Finally, San Benito still needed something out of the ordinary to win the league championship, and that came earlier this week when it was learned that Christopher had to forfeit at least four league games for using a player who was later ruled ineligible to play.
That meant San Benito’s loss to the Cougars on Feb. 4 was overturned into a win, a huge three-point swing. After all that, the Balers held a slim one-point lead on Monterey as both teams entered their regular-season finale on Thursday.
The Toreadores ended up beating Palma, 2-0, meaning had the Balers not beaten Monte Vista Christian, they would’ve finished in second place and more than likely would’ve been left out of the playoffs — again — because of a lack of points (teams in a ‘B’ league like the Pacific receive fewer points for playing league games compared to teams from an ‘A’ division like the Gabilan).
“I’m very proud of the guys because they kept on fighting,” Balers coach Tony Deras said. “This is a good team, a very disciplined team. It has always been a goal of mine to bring this program to CCS. It was the first thing I had in my mind when I took over (four years ago).”
Although the Balers dominated Monte Vista Christian — they had a whopping 22-5 shots-on-goal advantage — they went into halftime with nothing to show for it, having clanked three shots off the post while coming agonizingly close on several other shots.
Deras had a simple message for his players at halftime: “How bad do you want it?” Deras repeated that phrase two more times, and it apparently had a soothing effect on the players.
“Coach calmed us down at halftime,” Lopez Munoz said. “We knew we had to play our game, keep it simple and stay humble.”
After several near-misses to start the second half, San Benito finally broke through when Raul Cortes delivered a pass to a streaking Lopez Munoz, whose one-timer from inside the penalty area made it 1-0 in the 52nd minute.
The Balers scored two more times within a two-minute span starting in the 73rd minute. Lopez Munoz made a nice run down the right sideline before delivering a cross to Servin, who one-timed a shot to the upper right corner.
Two minutes later, Becerra produced one of the highlight-reel plays of the day, deftly sidestepping a defender before rocketing a shot to the lower left corner from just outside the 18-yard penalty box to make it 3-0.
Cortes used his speed to repeatedly blow by MVC defenders, finishing with six shots on goal, matching Lopez Munoz for team-high honors. The Balers also received solid play from defender Juan Castellanos and goalkeeper Mikel Rojas.
Despite dominating the action from start to finish, San Benito was not happy with its performance.
“We were forcing things,” Lopez Munoz said. “We weren’t being patient. We usually hold the ball and wait for the right moment to make a through ball.”
Said Deras: “Today’s game was horrible. I think the guys were just too excited and didn’t play the way they usually do.”
One couldn’t blame the players for being a bit amped; after all, they had just learned a day earlier of the Christopher forfeit. Deras actually learned of the forfeit via a website earlier in the week, then received confirmation from San Benito athletic director Tod Thatcher on Wednesday that the team’s loss to Christopher would be overturned into a forfeit win.
“It was hard to fall asleep that night after we learned what happened,” Lopez Munoz said.
