It was a game at times driven by physicality, at times crafted with great finesse—first place in the Moore League was at stake. And after the dust had settled on their home pitch, the Millikan Rams came away with the 3-0 decision over the Wilson Bruins. “They carved us open,” said Bruins coach Mark Hervin, whose team (3-1-1) now drops into a tie for second place with the Jordan Panthers, who’ll be hosting the Rams (4-0-1) on Friday. “It was a well-deserved win for them. It was a local derby, with a lot resting on it—but I’ve got to convince the boys that it was just one game. You can’t win league on one game—it’s over a season.”
The first half was evenly played, with the teams essentially even in shots on goal and dead ball opportunities—Millikan had a slight advantage in terms of possession, but Wilson was doing such a good job countering their attack that it was hard to feel who had the upper hand. The half is best explained through an example—in the 37th minute, Rams forward Manuel Espinoza came free in the box, but couldn’t get a boot on the ball before Wilson goalie Javier Torres scooped it up. Torres hurled the ball downfield—two passes and all of ten seconds later, Wilson had a try of their own, which sailed high. It was that kind of tug-of-war, athletic match, laced here and there with hard-hitting on-ball battles. The hardest came when Torres collided with Millikan senior captain Jonathan Garcia in the Wilson box—Garcia went down clutching his back, and spent the rest of the half trying to stretch out the injury.
But in the second half, the Rams found an extra gear, and left the Bruins behind. Twice right off the bat, in the fourth and sixth minutes, Millikan missed a goal by less than a foot. Then, in the 48th minute, forwards Espinoza and Jose Torres ran a quick give-and-go deep into Wilson’s territory, slipping by the defenders and forcing Wilson to take down Espinoza to prevent the goal. Or, rather, delay it, as the refs awarded the Rams a penalty kick, which the injured Garcia took, and converted. “It was really hurting,” he said after the game. “I still had the confidence but at first I wasn’t sure if it was going to affect the shot.”
“He’s a competitor,” said Millikan coach Rod Petkovic of Garcia. “I’m sure no matter what he would have told me he was fine.”
The score opened the gates for the Rams, as they ran roughshod over an emotionally drained Bruins squad, putting in a second goal twenty minutes later when Torres took advantage of a ball left in the box for a little too long. Ten minutes after that, with just a few minutes remaining, it appeared Wilson may have gotten on the board when a Millikan player accidentally knocked the ball into his own goal (the Rams scored an own goal against Compton)—but the ref ruled that he did so because he was pushed by a Bruin, negating the score. Then Millikan goalie Jorge Becerra (who has allowed just one goal in league this season, not counting the own goal) cleared the ball, and Espinoza basically just ran by the Bruins to score the third and final goal.
Wilson had a few chances in the second (including a dash by Bryan Arguello that was stolen, and a header off a corner by Arguello that was a half-foot too high), especially when they could use their set pieces, but for the most part Millikan just outran and outfought them. “Well all these guys ran cross country,” said Petkovic of his team’s fitness. “They could play two games back-to-back.”
Petkovic praised his forwards, as well, and Espinoza and Torres certainly did spark their offensive movement in the second 40 minutes of the match. But it was coach Hervin’s comment to each Millikan player and coach during the postgame handshake that may have been the most fitting: “You deserved it.” After watching that match, there can be no question that the Rams deserve their position at the top of the standings, with one game left before the first round of league play concludes. They still have the second-place Panthers to get through before then, but if they play a full 80 minutes like they did against Wilson, it’s hard to imagine them losing to Jordan, or to many other teams, for that matter.
