Machuca, Panthers get school-record 27th win

As cars flooded Porterville High’s parking lot for the tri-annual Porterville-Monache basketball game, an historic event occurred nearby.

The boys’ soccer team had just gotten its 27th win of the season, a 4-0 domination of sixth-seeded Foothill, Friday night.

The win breaks the eight-year-old mark of 26 and is the most in the 113-year history of the school.

Third-year Porterville coach Angel Vallin saw his team’s motivation skyrocket in hopes of attaining this mark.

“It’s a pretty big accomplishment for the boys,” Vallin said. “I was telling them, it’s nice to a part of something as nice as this, to be the team with the most wins. I just told them ‘You’ve gotta go out there and get it.’ And that’s exactly how we played. We weren’t taking a loss. We had to win no matter what.”

Division III’s third seed (27-3) got a typical effort from their top goal scorer, Santiago Machuca. Machuca scored two first-half goals and assisted Jonathan Mendoza for two goals within two minutes in the second.

Foothill (13-11-1) had just come off a double-overtime win over Mira Monte, Tuesday night, but arrived in Porterville a different team. Three players who were instrumental in that win were relegated to watching the game (they were ejected Tuesday, making them ineligible for the second-round playoff game) and the Trojans’ coach, Steve Landerdahl, couldn’t make the trip after being ejected as well.

Landerdahl got the news via text message at halftime and couldn’t have reacted well. Machuca had scored two goals and the Panthers’ defense wasn’t giving up any uncontested shots.

Machuca, who now has 32 goals on the season, got his first at the nine-minute mark. The sophomore striker took a pass from junior Josh Gonzalez and had just one defender to beat on his way to the net. Foothill’s Fernando Barrios got in Machuca’s way and appeared to be ready to clear the ball out, but Machuca snuck up from behind, stealing the ball and lobbing a shot into the net.

Machuca didn’t envision a goal on that play after Barrios got possession, but saw the Trojan lose control of it at the worst time.

“I didn’t think (I’d score there),” Machuca said. “He just forgot the ball. He just left it there. I got the ball and took the shot.”

Vallin saw his player’s year-round commitment to soccer pay off with a deceptive move.

“He’s got those old veteran moves,” he said. “A little quick tug here and he breaks loose from the kid, spins him around. It feels good when your guy that’s supposed to be a finisher finishes the plays. He gets us off to a 2-0 halftime lead. I mean, you can’t ask for anything better than that.”

He got his next goal at the 26-minute mark on an 18-yard shot into the top-right corner of the net.

While Machuca was finishing off plays on the Trojans’ end, his defense was stopping them before they started. Vallin went to Tuesday’s first-round overtime battle in Bakersfield and had his team spend the entire Thursday practice learning how to shut down Foothill’s offense.

“They pushed all their forwards in the front of the box while one guy trailed and that’s guy they were looking for the whole night,” Vallin said. “What we were working on Thursday, that’s the way they came and played. 

“I made sure that Margarito (Castro) playing defense and Issac Giron, my sweeper, was eyeballing the guy coming in from the back side. He’d tell Margarito when to release because the guy was always trying to take Margarito with him.”

Machuca thought Vallin’s scouting trip paid off significantly, as it gave the Panthers a glance at the Trojans’ playbook.

“We were practicing their plays (Thursday) and we had mostly all their plays (memorized),” he said. “It was a good thing he went.”

To finalize matters,  Mendoza finished off two Machuca assists within two minutes of each other. The sophomores connected when Machuca darted passes to an open Mendoza in the middle, who then rocketed two shots past Trojans goalie Andres Galindo.

“It’s beautiful. Any of my kids, from the midfielders to the forwards, can finish,” Vallin said. “That ball coming across (toward the middle of the field) is his signature shot.”

Porterville will play the winner of No. 7-seed Hanford West and No. 2-seed Dinuba’s quarterfinal, next Tuesday.