With the tie, San Benito cannot finish behind Salinas in the
TCAL standings; Gilroy visits Friday in the regular season
finale
SALINAS
Ties in soccer usually don’t provide much finality or certainty. With no winner and no loser, it can be difficult for a team, for the fans, to have that same sort of feeling a victory would most certainly provide.
On Wednesday, the San Benito Lady ‘Balers may have held a similar feeling when they tied host Salinas 1-1 at The Pit, with the Cowboys netting the equalizer in the 72nd minute.
But although it wasn’t a win in a tightly contested Tri-County Athletic League, it wasn’t a loss either.
Grasping to a one-point lead on second place in the TCAL, San Benito needed to win their last two remaining games in order to maintain their runner-up standing in the league – maintain their standing over Notre Dame (6-1-4 TCAL) and Salinas (6-4-2 TCAL), which were both tied for third – and finish with the all-important automatic bid toward the postseason.
But although Notre Dame managed to leapfrog the Lady ‘Balers (6-2-3 TCAL) for second place Wednesday when they defeated North Salinas 4-0 – and they could very well keep that standing as their only remaining game is at Everett Alvarez – San Benito’s non-loss to Salinas, at the very least, ensures them of a third-place finish in the TCAL.
“I would have liked a win, but I think I’m happy with where we’re standing right now,” San Benito head coach Ben Alvarez said.
The Lady ‘Balers could still finish in second place in the TCAL if Notre Dame loses to Everett Alvarez and San Benito beats Gilroy in the regular-season finale on Friday.
Salinas’ season, though, is complete, meaning they cannot possibly move ahead of San Benito. And if the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs extends an at-large bid to the TCAL, it would likely go to San Benito as a result.
“Our chances to go to playoffs are about 80/20,” Alvarez said.
The CCS seedings will be announced this weekend.
On Wednesday, though, San Benito goalie Emily Key staved off the Salinas attack and made seven saves on 19 shots, including a diving fingertip-grab early in the second half that was all but certain of going in.
“I thought that was going,” Alvarez said. “I was like, ‘Oh my God, what are we gonna do?'”
The game began with heavy showers and turned Salinas’ already fast-moving field into an even slicker pitch, but Hollister’s cardiac keeper, along with a strong back line of defense anchored by Nicole Yost in the first half and JC Clayton in the second, kept each of the Cowboys’ attempts at bay.
“We played a lot of turf in the beginning, so we’ve started to get used to being more on turf than on grass,” Key said. “But it was really slippery and sometimes the ball spins weird.”
Hannah Cobb could probably attest to that. On one of six San Benito corner kicks in the game, Cobb delivered a ball into the box in the 30th minute that ricocheted off a Salinas defender and past keeper Jenna Piini (four saves) into the far side of the net.
It was the Lady ‘Balers lone goal, but it was enough.
“We really wanted to score the whole time,” Cobb said. “We never really thought about tying. I didn’t even know if we’d move with a tie, so we were trying to win.
“But I think it works.”
Whereas the first half was more back-and-forth between both teams, Salinas clearly upped the intensity in the second half, and finished with 12 more shots on net as a result.
“They played a little more aggressively than the first half and they came out a little more harder it seemed like,” Key said.
“They were attacking too much in the middle, so I decided to play them defensively and just hold them (in the second half),” Alvarez said. “But they came at us pretty strong and they were playing aggressive.”
It wasn’t until the 72nd minute, however, when Cowboy Tessa Lee lofted a shot toward the net from 30 yards out. The lob was perfectly placed, grazing the crossbar above Key’s head and into the net.
“That shot, that was a nice goal,” Alvarez said. “There was nothing [Key] could have done. It was a nice shot.”
With one game left, Alvarez says his team has confidence going into Gilroy (10-0-1 TCAL).
The match will be held in Hollister on Friday at 3:30 p.m.
“We should have a good game,” Alvarez said. “Hopefully, we have no rain.”
TEAM 1 2 F
SANB 1 0 1
SALN 0 1 1
