It was famed New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra who said, “It’s like d\u00e9j\u00e1 vu all over again.” Too bad he never had the opportunity to meet Point Loma High soccer goalkeeper Marley Mascarenas.
\nYes, it was the senior with the alliterative name, who saved his teammates from elimination in two consecutive matches over a three-day period to win the Pointers’ second CIF title in the past three years. And, to sweeten the latest triumph, it came in Div. I after the Pointers were moved up following their Div. II win in 2015-16.
\nThe Pointers (No. 4 seed) and Western League foe St. Augustine (No. 1 seed) both received first-round byes in the tournament before being forced to meet for the third time this season in the semifinals after two regular-season league matches, both won by the Pointers 2-1 and 1-0.\u00a0
\nIn this third game, neither team could find the net after\u00a0playing for 90 minutes (80 minutes of regulation plus a 10-minute sudden death).
\nWhen the game went to a final five-round penalty kick format and\u00a0the Saints scored on the first pair against Mascarenas, Saints fans cheered wildly. But suddenly the Pointers awoke. Going into the fifth round tied at two, Mascarenas made the dramatic last-chance save before calmly picking up the ball and heading to the mark to take the final shot himself.
\nPausing a moment to size up the opposing goalkeeper, Mascarenas approached the\u00a0ball and sent a rocket into the back of the net for the game-winning score as his teammates raced towards him to celebrate.
\nJust 72 hours later, the Pointers found themselves on the pitch at Mission Bay High’s stadium for the CIF final against another Western League opponent, Scripps Ranch (No. 6 seed), who defeated the Pointers in both league encounters during the season by\u00a0scores of 2-0 and 3-1.\u00a0
\nDetermined to change that, the Pointers and Falcons moved\u00a0the ball up and down the field, again highlighted by aggressive play on both sides, collisions and injury stoppages.
\nFinally, in the 58th minute of play, the Falcons pounced on a loose ball in the penalty box and scored as their fans erupted in cheers at the 1-0 lead.
\nThe Pointers knew they had only 22 minutes to score or face defeat.
\nIt actually took only five minutes as senior Jack Caffo found junior Will Barba in front of the Falcon net, quickly tapping a lateral pass to Barba, who slid into the ball with enough force to propel it into the net, tie the game and ignite his teammates and Pointer fans.
\nThe game and 15-minute overtime ended with this 1-1 score, again going to penalty kicks to determine the CIF champion.
\nThis time, nobody could miss.\u00a0
\nFor the Pointers, senior Barrett Wolf, junior Chris Bourdon, senior Timmy Mooring and Caffo all found the net as did their counterparts from the Falcons, tying the score at four\u00a0apiece.
\nAnd then, Mascarenas took over.
\nFirst, he leaped to his right to make a\u00a0save on the fifth Falcon shooter as his teammates and Pointer fans yelled their support while the ‘keeper calmly picked up the ball.
\nThis time he struck a laser that fooled the Falcon ‘keeper, turned to face the stands, raised his hands\u00a0over his head and\u00a0dropped to his knees, disappearing under his teammates and hundreds of Pointer fans who rushed the field in a school-wide celebration.
\n“These boys have been through a pretty rough season,” said head coach Elliott Savitz, “so they’ve been down plenty of times. I was pretty calm and I think the boys were too, knowing we only had to get one opportunity. I don’t think they were rattled.”
\nAnd it turns out Mascarenas wanted to take the final penalty kick badly.
\n“Marley came into my classroom the day\u00a0after we lost to Oceanside last year,” (a 4-3 penalty kick loss to Oceanside in a state tournament play-in game) Savitz recalled, “And said ‘if we get\u00a0into a shootout situation next year I’m taking a penalty kick.’ He was ready for it and confident.”
\nSavitz characterized his team as young but intelligent with high soccer IQ, tenacious around\u00a0the box, hardworking, focused and aggressive.\u00a0
\nThe Pointer roster includes five players who played on both championship teams: Mascarenas, Patrick Smith and Ryan Little plus current captains Timmy Mooring and Caffo.
\nTeam members also include Shane Browne, Abraham Aceves, Lorien Bunton, Quentin Maldonado, Ryan Little, Shane Ybarra, Seth Guentner, Mason Berengue, Martin Casas, John Croxson, Luca Queiroz, Jason Donlon, Omar Landeros, Julian Barossi, Zane Sieger and Patrick Smith.
\nSavitz’s assistant coaches include Duarte Andrade and former player David Lopez. Extra points:
\nMascarenas will continue his career at USD.
\nWolf was named to the All-CIF\u00a0second team, the only Pointer recognized.
\nSavitz teaches\u00a0history, AVID and ESL at PLHS.
\nThe Pointers won their first state playoff game 3-0 over Aliso Niguel before their season was ended in a 3-1 loss to Sotomayor (Los Angeles).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was famed New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra who said, “It’s like d\u00e9j\u00e1 vu all over again.” Too bad he never had the opportunity to meet Point Loma High soccer goalkeeper Marley Mascarenas. Yes, it was the senior with the alliterative name, who saved his teammates from elimination in two consecutive matches over a […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":278125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Pointers win second soccer CIF championship in three years","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11561,11553],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-278124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-peninsula-beacon","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}