Late Goal by Jose Ramirez Lifts San Marcos to 1-0 Victory Over Rival Santa Barbara

With time winding down in the second half San Marcos junior Jose Ramirez collected a perfectly timed through ball from Ricardo Olivo and scored the only goal of the game to lift the Royals to a 1-0 victory over rival Santa Barbara.

The Dons came into the match at the top of the Channel League standings, but San Marcos was able to capture its most important win of the season thus far in the closing moments.

“We needed that game and this is hopefully the start of a good stretch for us,” said San Marcos coach Paul Whelan. “ We have to recognize that this is the start of the momentum and not the end of anything.”

The first 78 minutes of the match was a defensive stalemate. In the eleventh minute, San Marcos senior Favian Rosales made a nice move to evade the Santa Barbara goalkeeper who came way out of the box, but his left-footed shooted towards an empty goal trickled just wide. It was the first of many missed scoring chances by San Marcos.

The Dons created some solid scoring chances of their own throughout the match. In the 38th minute Jesus Miranda Mendoza unleashed a sizzling right-footed shot that was saved by the San Marcos goalkeeper. Mendoza quickly collected the rebound and took another shot, but his attempt was cleared off the line by San Marcos freshman Steven Monroy.

Both teams had problems executing in the final third offensively and that can be attributed to excellent play from each back line on defense. Steven Bradley was a standout for San Marcos, cutting out several dangerous attacks by Santa Barbara.

For Santa Barbara goalkeeper Sammy Ceballos had a strong match and was less that two minutes away from keeping a clean sheet.

“In rivalry games it really doesn’t matter who is in first, who is in last, who is in third or fourth,” said Santa Barbara coach Ricardo Alvarez. “It’s a rivalry game, everything kind of goes out the door.”

The last 15 or 20 minutes of the game San Marcos second half adjustments paid dividends as Santa Barbara struggled to get the ball out of its own end.

Ramirez capitalized in the 78th minute with his game-winning goal.

“I was running through, I saw Ricky with the ball and I just screamed at him… ball, ball,ball,” Ramirez said. “I got kind of nervous in front of the goal, but once it went in it was a good feeling.”

With the victory San Marcos improves to 3-1-2 in Channel League play. Santa Barbara drops to 4-1-1, but remains in first place.