The562’s soccer coverage for the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Beach Futbol Club.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by Poly alum Jayon Brown and PlayFair Sports Management.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly athletics in the 2022-23 school year is sponsored by JuJu Smith-Schuster and the JuJu Foundation.
Long Beach Poly boys’ soccer coach Eric Leon was standing on historic Burcham Field at 1600 Atlantic Avenue at 6 p.m. on Saturday night. He was facing south, looking at a glowing white cross atop a nearby Eastside church. His team had played 80 minutes of regulation and 20 minutes of overtime, and were still tied 1-1 with Hesperia in a CIF-SS Division 2 second round playoff game. Leon was nervous. His team was dominating the game but were still tied. He looked at the cross. He had a request.
“Jesus, let’s do this man, come on,” he said. “These kids deserve it.”
Whether it was divine intervention or not, the Jackrabbits pulled off what felt like a miracle in the penalty kick tiebreaker, rebounding from a missed game-winner and then a premature celebration to secure a 6-5 PKs win.
With the victory, Poly advances to the quarterfinals for the first time since 1999; they’ll host Anaheim in the CIF-SS Division 2 quarters on Wednesday evening.
“How resilient is that, when you miss a fifth PK to win it, usually teams break right there,” said Leon. “I’m proud of them, I’m really proud of them.”
The nearly three-hour contest came to an end thanks to a calmly-buried PK by senior Anner Aguilar, who walked to the spot and banged home the game-winner to set off a huge celebration by the Jackrabbits.
“When I saw 14 was walking out there, Anner, I knew it was a wrap,” said Leon. “That’s the hardest-working kid I’ve had probably since I got here. He deserved to be in that spot at that time. He’s just that kid. He rides his bike to our Summer league games. He earned that–he does what he’s asked, he’s never pouted.”
The game didn’t open in an auspicious way for Poly. They fell behind 1-0 in the seventh minute as Hesperia came out on the front foot and caught the Jackrabbits sleepwalking through the early part of the game. Leon and his assistant coaches exhorted their team to pick up the pace, and they responded, tying the game 13 minutes later on a free kick rebound score by Joshua Cholico.
Poly controlled the game for the rest of regulation and came close to a go-ahead score several times, particularly on long throws by Victor Kagurabadza, who had several bounce through the box and one even roll right along the top of the crossbar. At the end of regulation it was still tied, and after two ten-minute golden goal overtime periods (both of which Poly dominated), it was still 1-1.
That’s how Leon found himself staring at the glowing white cross to the south as his team began to organize themselves for penalty kicks. Poly keeper Amir Diaz Espinoza made a pair of incredible saves during regulation, and was prepared for PKs all game.
“I trust my teammates to finish their chances, and it’s mutual respect, they trust me,” said Diaz Espinoza. “My boy Victor (Kagurabadza) was cramping and I told him, ‘You pull out these 10 minutes and I’ll pull it out in PKs.’ We’re all doing it for each other. That’s how the team works. That’s how we won.”
Hesperia won the coin toss and elected to kick first. They made their first three shots, with Poly answering each one as Roque Alvarez, Roberto Bermudez, and Steve Marquez all found the back of the net. The fourth attempt by Hesperia went off the crossbar, and Noah Ramirez made his to give Poly a 4-3 advantage going to the fifth and final PK.
But Damien Gonzales’ potential game-winning attempt was swallowed up by the Hesperia keeper, giving them new life in the extra rounds of the PK tiebreaker. Hesperia made their next, which was answered by Poly’s Cholico to keep it tied at 5-5 going to the seventh round. That’s when Diaz Espinoza stared down the Hesperia shot-taker, then chased the ball to his left as it sailed wide of the frame.
Six rounds in, the Poly team had lost track of the count, and the team flooded onto the field to dance with Diaz Espinoza, thinking that they’d won the game. Leon and his assistants implored them to go back to the sideline, and the team picked itself up out of a dogpile and complied, leaving Aguilar to make a long walk to the spot, with the crowd holding its collective breath.
He said he wasn’t nervous though, filled with the same calm and confidence that his coach was when he saw that it was “14” marching to take the last kick.
“Every step I took I got more confident,” said Aguilar. “I always practice my PK. After every practice, I stay and practice the exact same shot just in case. And I know we have a great keeper, so even if I miss my goalie’s going to pick us up and we’re going to win. So I just walked up and hit it and it went in.”
Aguilar’s score brought the Poly team streaming back onto the field for the second time in as many minutes, dancing around Aguilar and celebrating together. Now that Poly team will go from dancing on the field to dancing their way into the quarterfinals, at home again next Wednesday against Anaheim, on the same field and under the same cross.
“It’s amazing,” said Diaz Espinoza. “We’re making school history.”
