El Farolito Rides Second Half Surge To Knock Out Napa
Second-seeded El Farolito earned a 5-1 victory over third-seeded Napa Valley 1839 FC on Saturday afternoon in San Francisco.
The home side grabbed the lead in the 26th minute thanks to Erik Arias. His 14 goals in 9 regular season matches made him the second highest scorer among the 92 teams who play in the NPSL nationwide.
Dario Pavon equalized for Napa 3 minutes into the second half, converting a penalty kick. Farolito goalkeeper Johan Lizarralde dove to his left, but Pavon’s shot went to his right. Pavon was also one of the nation’s leading scorers in the regular season, with 11 goals in 9 matches.
Napa’s equalizer was a wakeup call for El Farolito who dominated the remainder of the match, thanks in part to their second half substitutes.
Honduran striker Dembor Benson entered the match shortly after Pavon’s goal and Arias responded by scoring a brace in the 53rd minute, his third goal of the playoffs.
Ricardo Delgado gave the home side a two-goal lead in the 60th minute.
Benson added his second goal of the playoffs in the 74th minute.
Another second half substitute, Judas Higuera, added a final goal in stoppage time, as the visitors’ large contingent of supporters saw their season come to an end.
Napa concluded a very successful season with 8 wins in 10 regular season matches. Their only losses came to the two teams ahead of them in the table: a 1-0 loss at El Farolito on April 9 and a 5-0 loss at Sacramento on May 7.
Two Braces Equal a Win for Sacramento
Dalton Pando and Manolo Pina both scored braces in Sacramento Gold FC’s 4-2 win over defending champion Academica SC on Saturday night.
The visitors responded with a brace of their own from Felipe Lopez.
After a scoreless first half, Sacramento brought in Pina as a substitute to begin the second half. He made an immediate impact, as the hosts exploded with goals from Pando in the 48th minute, Pina in the 51st minute, and Pando again in the 60th.
But Lopez got Academica back into the match with a shot that curled just inside the far post in the 70th minute, on an assist from Kevin Capetillo. And Lopez scored another 3 minutes later to cut the deficit to a single goal.
Pina put the match away in stoppage time. The goal was his fourth of the playoffs, after he scored 12 in 8 regular season matches, making him the 4th leading scorer in the NPSL.
Academica finished an up-and-down season that included impressive results against both finalists. They beat El Farolito 3-0 in the second week of the season and later earned a 1-1 regular season draw at Sacramento.
Next Week
El Farolito travels to Sacramento for the NPSL Golden Gate Conference championship match next weekend. The clubs’ regular season meeting came in the opening match of the season, when Sacramento gave up an 11th minute goal, but came roaring back thanks to two second half goals from Kody Duff to earn a 2-1 victory.
Both clubs have made significant roster changes since that opening match, with only 5 players on each side who started in both the opening match and last weekend’s semifinal. The leading scorers for each team (Erik Arias or Pina) were not in their club’s starting lineup for the opener, though Arias did come on as a substitute for the final 27 minutes of the match.
