Rancho Bernardo Game Update - 2-18-2011

What an effort. Already knowing that Westview had defeated Mt. Carmel earlier in the day 1-0, we knew that we needed to win in order to grab a share of the Palomar League title for the 2nd straight year....Boy did we come to play......On a cold and rainy night we wanted to show everyone that we indeed are the team to beat. With our sweeper and defensive leader, Sean Gallagher, sitting out his second straight game, our defense and goaltender stepped it up.

Ben Faller, wearing Sean Gallaghers jersey, got us started in the 31st minute, when off a corner kick from Eric Budniewski, he rose above the R.B. defense to head the ball past the R.B. goaltender. There was no more scoring in the 1st half.
Early in the 2nd half we were able to push our lead to 2-0 when Ben Faller, again, was in the right place at the right time. The score came off a free kick from Eric Budniewski that was deflected by Ernie Reyes, right to Ben, who then headed it into the net to pad our lead. After that it was just up to our defense including Nick Custis, Zach Lentz, Kyle Hess, Ben Faller, Chris Kusunoki, and Ernie Reyes to keep R.B. away from our goal. The defense played great. Not to be left out was our goaltender, Zach McDonnell. Zach registered his league leading 9th shutout of the year. Many of his saves were incredible but none better than when he deflected a shot over the goal in the last two minutes. Other players pitching in and playing a good game were Evan Myers, Kevin Meyer, Eric Budniewski, Jeff Meyer, Luke Flud and freshman Sasha Peranteau, a recent call up from the JV team.
As the final whistle sounded the boys stormed the field and celebrated their 2nd straight Co-Palomar League championship. On hand to help in the celebration was Poway all-time leading scorer and U.C. Davis star Alex Henry. Playoff brackets will be announced on Saturday.