When Ben Roach decided to play for Santa Barbara High’s boys soccer team in his senior year, he became the key piece that made the Dons a serious contender for a CIF-Southern Section Division 1 title.
Roach was the difference maker in Saturday’s championship game against L.A. Cathedral. In a scoreless battle, he came up with several big saves in the second half and then stopped three shots in a penalty-kick shootout, lifting Santa Barbara to a 3-2 title win at Warren High in Downey.
Jackson Wright scored the game-winning PK, and Juan Carlos Torres and Guillermo Mendoza also converted for the Dons, who last won a Southern Section title in 2010. They won a SoCal Regional title in 2011.
“It’s incredible, it’s hard to put it into words how it feels,” Heil said of winning the seventh section title in program history. “This group as been such a good group of kids. We’ve been saying all year long our biggest strength is them just wanting to have fun together and train together. And the chemistry has been unbelievable.”
After getting beat on the first PK, Roach stopped Cathedral’s next three shots.
His performance didn’t surprise Heil
“We learned that in our first tournament of the year in Paso Robles. In the final, Ben saved a few in that one. At South Torrance, we beat Peninsula and Fremont in PKs,” Heil said. “The confidence we have in him is incredible, and what that does is make your shooters feel a lot more confident going up there and more relax. Even if we miss one, the next shooter knows: ‘We have Ben Roach back there.’ He’s just a calming influence.”
Up until this season, Roach played for a soccer academy and only played volleyball for Santa Barbara High.
At the academy, his goalkeeping earned him a scholarship at UCSB.
He showed Cathedral why he’s going to the next level. Before the shootout, he made made several big saves during the second half.
“It’s truly unbelievable, a dream come true,” Roach said. “Couldn’t have done it with a better team.”
Roach’s impact became magnified in the second half when Santa Barbara center midfielder Owen Lambe was unable to play because of a knee injury suffered in the first half.
“We definitely we had to reset,” Roach said. “He’s one of our better attacking players, he gets it going for us up front. We kind of locked it down in the defensive zone and then just held through double overtime and PKs.”
The Dons had the upper hand when Lambe was on the field.
“I was pleased with the first 30-plus minutes and then, unfortunately, we had a big injury,” Heil said. “The injury to Owen Lambe really changes who we are. Owen is a special kid and a special player. We don’t have another Owen Lambe on the team, so once someone on the team goes down you got to change, you have to adapt. We had to go defensive.
“It might not have been the most pretty, but we had to do what we’ve done all year long and that is not let people score. We’ve given up only nine goals this year and we knew we could rely on our defense. That’s what we were going to do: we were going to pick our moments to attack and pick our chances. And if we had to ride it to PKs, we were going to ride it to PKs.”
That’s when Roach took center stage.
He said it helped him that Cathedral went through a shootout in its semifinal victory over San Clemente.
“We were able to scout a little bit, see where they go,” he said. “Fortunately, they went the same way on most of them. The coaches helped me out, showed me after the second overtime where all of (their kicks) were going. That definetely helped me out and getting a good push off and reading the ball well.”
The Dons created some good chances in the first half. Heymar Hernandez created opportunities with long throws into the penalty area, but Santa Barbara couldn’t come up with a finishing touch.
The Dons survived a number of close chances by the Phantoms in the final minutes of regulation, including a header by striker Alejandro Lugo that Roach cleanly saved. Roach was aided by the post on a shot following a corner kick in the 63rd minute.
Santa Barbara fought through fatigue to get the game into the shootout.
“This is it, there is more tomorrow,” Heil said of what he told his players about playing through the fatigue. “It’s now. It is so hard to get to this game. I don’t how care how good you are; last time I checked the No. 1 seed was out in the second round.
“You just have to dig deep because you never know, at any level, if you’ll get back to the championship game,” he continued. And you have to seize upon that one moment and dig deep. We told the guys: ‘Whatever you have, you got to find it and dig deep in these last 10-20 minutes.”
Cathedral scored on its first attempt in the shootout and Santa Barbara missed off the post. Roach saved the second shot by the Phantoms and Torres converted to tie the score at 1-1.
Roach dived to make his second straight save, but the Dons missed their third chance. Roach came through again and Mendoza broke the tie to put the Dons up 2-1.
Kevin Aragon, Cathedral’s fifth shooter, scored down the middle to equalize.
That left up to Wright to finish the shootout. He calmly nailed the deciding goal for the championship.
Heil said every title is special. What sets this one apart is it comes after not many people gave the Dons a chance to win it.
“This team, I don’t think many people gave us a chance from the beginning to be where we are today after losing in the second round last year at Loyola,” he said. “We just found ways to win this year. We dug deep as a team and we never gave up on each other.”
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk Sports on Twitter: @NoozhawkSports. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.