A late controversial penalty Wednesday night allowed Hilmar’s Blake Vitorino to post a penalty kick in stoppage time and give the visiting Yellowjackets a 2-1 win over Ripon Christian in boys Trans-Valley League soccer action.
“I talked to the ref after the game, and he said typically on a play like that, as long as the shot or cross goes off he won’t call it,” Knights coach Danny Koolhaas said. “He said there was too much contact after the ball got delivered in, so he decided to blow the whistle.”
Hilmar remains undefeated in TVL play at 9-0-0 and is 13-2-2 overall.
“Hilmar is a really good team,” Koolhaas said. “The first 10 minutes, we came out not great and not according to the game plan we put in. After that, we dialed in and started marking their dynamic front.
“At the end of the day, I told their No. 21 (Alexis Arenas) that he was the best kid in the league. If you look at their goals against, you can see they are awful hard to score on, and for us to get opportunities to score, we played really well tonight, better than last week for sure.”
Jack Dooley tied the game at 1-1 for Ripon Christian (5-3-1, 6-6-3) late in the first half. Talen Tameling headed a direct kick toward the goal, and it was deflected back to Dooley, who got the goal.
“The ball got deflected and ended up being wide open,” Dooley said. “So, I just kicked it in.”
The Yellowjackets scored in the first three minutes of the contest off of a goal by Zabdiel Vasquez.
“Sometimes, when we score too early, the first thing that goes into their heads is that this is going to be an easy game,” Hilmar coach Louie Bettencourt said. “So, we let our guard up a little bit, so we give momentum to the other team because we are not playing as hard because we think the game is over. Well, it is never over until the 80 minutes are gone.
“They are a great team. They gave us a fight, and it was right to the end. We probably should have finished a couple of more and we didn’t, and that gave them momentum and it was down to the wire.”
The Knights have more than a week off and play at Escalon on Friday, Feb. 6, at 3:30 p.m.
Junior varsity
Ripon Christian 5, Hilmar 2
Hans Schooland and Ethan Vander Plaats each notched a brace for the Knights.
Ripon Christian’s Jax Booth added a goal.
