Albion San Diego punched its ticket to the NISA semifinals after a nail-biting victory in penalty kicks over the Maryland Bobcats (8-7) on Saturday night at Canyon Crest Academy Stadium. The win came after both sides ended regulation and the additional 30 minutes of extra time in a scoreless draw as Albion goalkeeper Ben Roach came up with the save on Maryland goalkeeper Alex Sutton to seal the victory.

“It was an amazing sensation to win on penalties,” said Albion San Diego head coach Diego Gomez. “Maryland did a great job after going down to ten players. It was a hard battle, but we’re through to the next round to play one more game.”

The Bobcats went down a player in the 83rd minute after defender Phillip Brown was issued a second yellow card, which gave Albion the numerical advantage for the remainder of the match. The visitors did more than hold their own despite the disadvantage creating scoring opportunities including one in the 113th minute from near point-blank range that forward Darwin Espinal flew over the crossbar.

All the penalty kicktakers converted for Albion San Diego starting with captain Tyler Gabarra and ending with forward Aleksandar Gluvacevic while the Bobcats also scored on all of theirs before the final one Sutton took.

“I think it was a full team win,” said Roach. “Everyone worked hard on their penalty kicks all week and it showed by stepping up and burying theirs. They gave me the easy job to go out and save one.”

Albion San Diego now travels to defeat the defending champion Michigan Stars in a rematch of last season’s championship game. Albion went undefeated versus Michigan during the regular season including a 1-0 road victory on July 18 at Romeo Stadium.

Foto de David Frerker