SANTA ANA — The Mater Dei boys soccer team is advancing to the quarterfinal round of the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs after winning on penalty kicks against Montclair on Friday at Mater Dei High School.
The Monarchs (18-1-1), who are the No. 2 seed in the Open Division bracket, are moving on thanks in large part to the play of goalkeeper Brayden McClelland, who made saves on three consecutive penalty kicks, helping the Monarchs win 3-1.
Jake Barak scored two goals for Mater Dei in regulation.
The Monarchs will play No. 3 seed San Clemente on Tuesday after the Tritons eliminated JSerra in their playoff series Friday.
“The main objective for me is just to get in their head,” McClelland said of facing penalty kicks. “I act like I know where they’re going before they know where they’re going. It helped that we looked at some films, so I knew where two of them were already going. So that helped, but one of them, I just totally guessed. I could just tell by the way his body was moving, and I just went for it.”
Under the format for the new Open Division playoffs, teams play each other in the first and second round with the cumulative score for both games used to determine the winner, who then advances to the quarterfinal round.
The No. 7 seed Cavaliers (19-4-1) defeated Mater Dei, 2-1, on Wednesday at Montclair, putting the Monarchs in a situation of having to win by two goals in regulation or win in overtime in their second matchup.
The loss was the first of the season for the Monarchs.
Mater Dei defeated the Cavaliers, 2-1, on Friday, making the cumulative score of the two games 3-3, and forcing overtime.
After two scoreless 10-minute overtime periods, the contest moved to the penalty kick phase.
That’s where McClelland became the hero.
“We took our first loss, so it showed what our boys’ character was like,” Mater Dei coach Sean Ganey said. “It was like, okay, can you rally? Can you show resilience? Can you show character?”
For the first goal, Barak took a pass from C.J. Garcia, dribble down the left sideline, beat a defender, and kicked a bullet into the goal from about 35 yards out.
The Cavaliers then tied the score on a goal from Israel Jiminez.
Three minutes into the second half, Mater Dei’s Avian Gonzalez-Flores set up for a free kick in the center of the field, 50 yards from the goal.
Flores sent a long line drive into the box, where Bark jumped and got enough of his head on the ball to re-direct it over the goalkeeper’s head.
“It feels incredible,” Barak said. “We’ve been working so hard all year. We put our blood, sweat and tears into this team. We all have so much good chemistry. After our first loss, we were really angry to come into this game. We knew we were just a better team in the end.”
