Photo by Stephen Dachman
“I’ve been coaching since 1973, and I’ve never won two titles in one season,” said Millikan coach Rod Petkovic moments after taking his second Gatorade bath of the year following a 2-1 win at home over Wilson, a game that gave the Rams the Moore League title for the second time in five days.
Following the two forfeits imposed by CIF—a story we broke yesterday and will have more info on this weekend, now that we’ve spoken with CIF—the Rams and Bruins found themselves tied atop the league at 16 points each, with a winner-take-all game on the Millikan campus. The Rams faced a further impediment with the absence of four starters, including their top two goal-scorers; they played a few kids who had spent the year on JV, and turned to a second-stringer to net both goals in the victory.
“I put the extra pressure on myself, because my forwards were out,” said senior Luis Garcia, who scored the first two goals of the game, in the 42nd and 65th minutes. Garcia, and the rest of the Millikan team, didn’t seem to mind that the Friday game meant a little extra. “We won the championship twice,” he said. “We’re the only ones to ever do that.”
It was a spirited match to be sure, with so much on the line—both teams had their chances in the first half, though neither broke through. Wilson gave the Millikan crowd a heart attack in the waning moments, when Jake Armstrong’s throw-in near the box found teammate Tony Gonzalez’s head, and he tipped it perfectly back towards the goal. A diving save by Millikan keeper Jorge Becerra, who was excellent as always, kept the net clean in the opening frame.
The Rams came out with a little more intensity in the second, and it was just two minutes in that Garcia found himself alone on the left elbow of the box, turning and shooting with his left foot and finding the far post to go up 1-0. Twenty minutes later, on the right elbow, he had another turn and shoot, this time righty, putting Millikan up 2-0 with less than twenty minutes to play.
As Millikan dropped into defense, the Bruins pushed harder, ultimately scoring in the final ten minutes when Armstrong put a free kick perfectly into the Millikan box, finding teammate Chris Skovgard’s head as he streaked towards the goal. The kick caught him in stride, and the ball bounced untouched into the top of the goal. Try as they might, Wilson didn’t get another good look, thanks to another stifling effort by the Millikan back line, and according to the Bruins’ coach, because not enough stoppage time was clocked.
“The referee told me it was seven, eight minutes of stoppage,” said Wilson coach Mark Hervin. “Then we played maybe two, and with injuries and substitutions. All credit to Millikan, they’re a great team—but [the referee] had a definite impact on the game.”
For Petkovic and the rest of the Millikan faithful, the victory was just the righting of the record books. “It would be a travesty if we’d lost—nobody beat us except the paperwork.”
The Rams won’t carry an unblemished league record into the CIF playoffs next week (they’re 10-0-2 on the field, and 8-2-2 with the forfeits), and we’ll have to wait and see if the forfeits affect their CIF no. 1 standing. But despite the smudges on their record, we do know this: Millikan soccer holds the title of 2009-2010 Moore League boys’ soccer champions. Er, twice.