Northwood stays alive with rally to beat San Clemente

SAN CLEMENTE - Northwood boys soccer coach Josh Brooks said his team’s goal this year wasn't just to qualify for the postseason, but make a run at a championship.

Mission accomplished.

The Timberwolves are just one game away from playing for a CIF-Southern Section Division 1 title after a thrilling, come-from-behind victory over San Clemente, 5-4 in penalty kicks after the teams tied 2-2 through overtime, in a quarterfinals game at San Clemente on Thursday.

Northwood (11-7-5) advances to the semifinals, where it will face JSerra, which defeated Esperanza on Thursday. The semifinal is the farthest a Northwood team has gone in the playoffs since it won a Division 4 championship in 2002.

“This team had a goal of putting Northwood back on the map,” Brooks said. “This win is a big, big steppingstone for the boys and says a lot about the program.”

San Clemente was aiming to become the first team in the school’s history to advance to the semifinals. For a majority of the game, it certainly looked like the Tritons were going to accomplish that feat.

San Clemente was dominant for the game’s first 60 minutes. The Tritons made repeated runs inside Northwood territory and grabbed a 2-0 lead.

Their first goal came at the 35-minute mark off a throw-in adjacent to Northwood’s penalty box. Danny Martinez’s toss was headed backwards by Martin Licea to senior Schyler Kaminski, who one-timed his shot from close range for the score.

San Clemente went up 2-0 on a penalty kick by Steve Palacios at the 59-minute mark. The penalty occurred when Northwood goalkeeper Eric Barnett clobbered San Clemente’s Tom Wiechert leaping for a pass.

“I misread the pass,” Barnett explained.

Before the home crowd could get settled in their seats after celebrating the Tritons’ goal, the Timberwolves answered back. Junior Jacob Murray found an opening in the box and cut San Clemente’s lead in half with a 15-yard score to the far post just seconds after the kickoff.

Two minutes later, freshman Trevor Hyman delivered a pass through the box that was knocked in by a San Clemente defender.

“We looked amazing for the first 60 minutes,” said Tritons coach Michael Pronier, “but give Northwood credit. Once they got a little energy, they played a different game.”

San Clemente continued to apply the pressure for the remainder of the half. Martinez rocketed a shot off the left post in the 67th minutes, and Palacios had a sure goal stopped by a diving Burnett in the 69th.

Even a Red Card on Martinez didn’t stop the Tritons, who owned possession for the remainder of regulation and through the two 10-minute overtimes.

In the shootout, Barnett supplied the winning save when he dived to his right and blocked a shot by Fabian Caudillo. All five shooters for Northwood – Murray, Jonathon Shon, Kyle Purzycki, Tony Fullman and Hyman – scored.

“We’re a blue-collar team,” said Brooks. “We don’t have a lot of superstars, but we’re unified and we work hard. That’s why we’re in the semifinals.”