Crosstown rivals battle to Big Game tie, again

From 2016-17 to 2018-19, the Crushers won all six meetings by multiple-goal margins. The next five were decided by single-goal margins.

The next two after that were ties, a scoreless decision last February and Friday night’s 1-1 Vine Valley Athletic League deadlock.

“Both teams played great,” Napa head coach Rafael Ayala said. “I think it’s good for the community.”

Napa got on the scoreboard first, as senior Roberto Garcia headed in a cross from sophomore Salvador Gutierrez in the 19th minute.

It was only Garcia’s second goal, the other coming in a 4-1 loss to league leader Casa Grande.

“It was kind of nerve-wracking,” Garcia recalled. “I didn’t expect to go through the player. He came at me with full pressure. I didn’t expect to win the ball. But I won it and passed it to my teammate and thanks to them, they got that good cross and I was behind at the perfect time and scored.”

Just two minutes later, however, the Grizzlies were called for a handball and senior Eric Reis slotted the penalty kick just inside the left post.

“He doesn’t shy away from that opportunity,” Vintage co-coach Alex Feliciano said of Reis. “He embraces that pressure. He’s cool as a cucumber. He wants that opportunity and he hits the ball well every time. He knows where he’s going to kick it and he doesn’t hesitate or overthink it. He just puts the ball in the back of the net. Even if you knew where he was going with it, he hit that ball with such pace and such precision that you’re not going to stop it.”

The remaining 59-plus minutes were a combination of tough defense and poor shooting. One Vintage player who found himself one-on-one with Napa High goalkeeper Angel Olvera late in the game appeared to be trying to power the ball right through the junior when instead he airmailed it well over the net.

Garcia did the same thing.

“Their goal didn’t lower my morale. It made me want to keep pushing and I had a good chance at the last minute, but unfortunately I couldn’t score it,” he said.

Vintage and Napa, both 5-2-4 overall and 2-0-2 in the VVAL, are undefeated in the league along with Casa Grande (2-0-1 VVAL) and Sonoma Valley (1-0-1).

“It’s early in the season, but I just hope everyone does well so we can get everyone in the league into the playoffs and get good seeding,” Ayala said. “This (parity) is good for everybody in the league.”

After tying Casa Grande 1-1 a week before opening league play, the Grizzlies won 2-0 at Justin-Siena on Monday and 3-1 at American Canyon on Wednesday. Francisco Munoz, Angel Rodriguez and Jose Leyva scored against the Wolves, with Garcia adding an assist.

“We have a great group of kids who have old-school, 1990s-type, gritty personalities. There are no egos, and they’re all meshing and clicking together,” Ayala said. “When we travel and fall behind, we fight back and work at it. I’m proud of everything they’ve accomplished, not only in soccer but in life.”

Garcia feels the Grizzlies are greatly improved over last year’s team, which finished third in the VVAL at 7-2-2 and 9-7-5 after falling to Clayton Valley Charter in the first round of the North Coast Section Division 1 playoffs.

“We’ve improved big-time with our team effort and team chemistry,” he said.

Garcia was asked what he felt the Grizzlies needed to do to end their 13-game winless streak against the Crushers in Feb. 1 rematch.

“It’s going to take 100% of the team never giving up on defense,” he said. “We’ve got to improve on communication.”

Garcia will be doing whatever he can to help the team, as this is his first and last high school season.

“As a freshman and sophomore, I didn’t get that motivation to want to play. But I kept watching it and getting motivated, so I tried out junior year and made it but was injured most of the season,” he explained. “So as a senior, I feel I have to prove myself and give it everything I’ve got.”

Reis was asked how he felt after Napa scored first.

“I was a bit disappointed because I felt their goal should never have happened in the first place,” he said. “It was good to score quickly after that, and I’m never nervous taking penalties, but it wasn’t enough. It feels like a loss. There’s a lot of stuff we need to clean up. All season we’ll be thinking about this game, how we should have won it.”

Weather forecasts kept indicating in the days leading up to Friday the 13th that it would rain on the Big game. But it didn’t start until the final minutes.

“We got lucky,” Reis said. “It’s a bit harder for me vision-wise when it rains. The rain hitting your eyes is annoying, but on the field it’s fine.”

Feliciano said the team was looking forward to visiting Berkeley (6-4-1) for a nonleague game at 3 pm Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“It’s a good opportunity to bounce back from a game where we didn’t get the result we wanted,” the coach said. “It wasn’t the worst result, obviously, but a game where we felt like we did enough and had enough possession and control of the game and enough chances but came away with a draw. It feels like a loss for us because of our expectations and what we are capable of, and we just couldn’t find the back of the net.

“Berkeley’s a solid program. We know what they’re capable of, what they bring. They always make a deep playoff run. It helps our strength of schedule and it helps our boys get ready for the playoffs. It’ll be a good test for us. We’re a little banged up. We don’t have our full squad right now. We’re missing some guys due to red cards, a center back and a winger. It’ll test our resolve and character.”

After tying Sonoma Valley 0-0 at home on Wednesday and Napa 1-1 on Friday, the Crushers are hungry for any kind of W.

“Having back-to-back ties in the league is not what we want,” Feliciano said. “Like we told the boys, there’s a lot of season left, we still control our own destiny and we’re in an OK place, but we’d like to see some wins.”

But he gave Napa, which hosts Petaluma at 6 pm Wednesday, plenty of credit.

“These boys play each other so hard. That’s the great thing,” said Feliciano. “Our boys were upset and heads were down, but you can’t say that both teams didn’t put everything on the line. The effort was there, the heart was there, and we’ll take that any day.”

Vintage co-coach Javier Covarrubias agreed.

“Every time we play Napa, you have to respect them. Because it’s Big Game, regardless of whatever the talent levels might be, they’re going to challenge you every year. (Ayala) has always had his team organized and ready for the game, so you have to respect them and go in confident but also ready for a battle.”

Jose Ramirez, playing with a yellow card, scored on a ball from about 30 yards out and then got another yellow card when he took his jersey off in celebration for the Crushers (3-0 VVAL). He scored and got ejected on the same play.

“He got caught up in his emotions and got his marching orders,” Feliciano said. “We played a man down for the next 20 minutes or so.

“But our goalkeeper (Daniel Ortiz) made some great saves. There was a play at the end where he was out of position and they shot at a wide-open goal, but our center back, Zack Sheppard, saved it off the line.”