Four seconds from defeat, Georgetown pulls out boys soccer playoff win over McCallum
Georgetown forward Martin Valdes uses Cristiano Ronaldo’s patented goal celebration, which was appropriate Thursday night as he provided a Ronaldo-esque performance.
Valdes recorded a hat trick to lead the Eagles to a 3-1 win over McCallum in extra time in a wild Class 5A bi-district playoff game at House Park, where Georgetown escaped being eliminated in regulation by seconds.
“It’s an amazing feeling doing this in the postseason,” Valdes said. “It’s the best. The end of regulation was shocking, but I’m just really glad we tied it.”
The Eagles trailed 1-0 and seemed destined to have their season ended with the clock winding down, but defender Steven Dolan played a long ball into the Knights’ box that Valdes ran onto, then settled before getting fouled and being awarded a penalty with four seconds left.
“My teammates were yelling at me that time was running down, and I looked up and saw Martin open, and I thought I might as well give it a shot,” Dolan said. “He had a great touch to control it.”
Valdes converted the penalty with a low blast to the left side, showing no sign of the weight of the situation.
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“On that type of penalty with that much pressure, you just have to clear your head and hit the ball hard,” he said.
It gave the Eagles all the momentum heading into extra time.
There, Valdez scored in the last minute of the first half on a beautiful jumping strike in the box where his body was nearly horizontal with the ground. He found the net again in the opening minute of the second half on a powerful blast from 20 yards out.
Valdez “is just a special type of kid,” Georgetown coach Jason Rich said. “He’s scored 28 goals this year and is a competitor. He’s got a little (Michael) Jordan in him as he hates to lose in anything. You could see that tonight as he was going hard until the end. He plays the whole game and never stops running. I’m glad it paid off for him tonight.”
The result ruined a brilliant performance by McCallum goalkeeper Sam Kanewske, who made nine saves, several of which came in the second half.
Georgetown (17-3-4) started the game strong, controlling possession and creating more attacking chances, sparked by midfielder J.J. Carrillo Jr., but once the Knights got settled, the contest was evenly played the rest of regulation.
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McCallum (8-9-1) took its lead in the 75th minute when Speight Twohey scored on a clinical header off Ohad Klein’s corner kick, and the Knights appeared headed for a minor upset, but Dolan and Valdes had other ideas.
“Those final moments of regulation were almost surreal,” Rich said. “Honestly, you’re kind of numb, but you want to see how the penalty goes. Then we were really confident going into extra time.”
Credit has to be given to McCallum — which had an injury-riddled regular season, with some players making their return Thursday — for not being completely deflated, but Georgetown mostly controlled the run of play in the extra 20 minutes.
Knights forward Liam Plum, whom the Eagles double-teamed for most of the game, joined Klein and Twohey in playing well for McCallum, but Kanewske kept the score from being worse in the final few minutes.
“McCallum is very well-organized, well-coached and has some dangerous players,” Rich said. “Obviously, we’re super-proud of our guys for fighting until the very end.”
Leaving the field after the game, some Georgetown players still seemed stunned — in a positive way — at what had just occurred.
“It was emotional after the game,” Dolan said. “I put my heart into this, and I love my team and don’t want this to end.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Georgetown boys soccer team tops McCallum in dramatic playoff win
