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By Spencer DuPuis
LoCoSports Journalist
Leesburg (May 26, 2015) — Knowing the Lady Pride had secured a spot in the Conference 21 girls soccer championship, the Heritage High School boys were looking to make it a Heritage-filled Conference 21 championship Tuesday, but needed to defeat a tough Park View Patriots team on May 22 in a conference semifinal to get there.
The game’s first 50 minutes offered a very boring, slow-paced game, but both teams did have a couple offensive bursts. During the 50th-minute, both teams started to play a faster paced game, which saw offensive opportunities for each team.
Pride senior midfielder Jonathan Martinez opened up the scoring with a goal in the 57th-minute.
Moments later Martinez and two teammates — including the Pride’s leading scorer Giovanni Vasquez — were penalized for celebrating that goal.
Martinez and the other member of the Pride were only given yellow cards, since it was their first infractions of the game, but Vasquez was given a red after a previous yellow. Losing Vasquez caused a major momentum shift.
Less than two minutes had passed after the man-advantage was announced, when Patriot freshman forward Remberg Garcia launched his first of what ended up being five goals past the Pride goalkeeper Cameron Hohenschutz to tie the game at 1-1.
However, the Pride didn’t give up as Martinez scored another goal to give the Pride a 2-1 lead in the 63rd-minute.
After that crazy eight minute stretch – which included another Garcia goal – both teams settled in for what looked to be a game destined for extra time, but with just under two minutes left the Pride again played a bad ball and Garcia took advantage to score his third goal of the game giving the Patriots a 3-2 with under two minutes remaining.
Garcia didn’t stop there; he added another two goals in the final minute-and-a-half to propel the Patriots to a 5-2 win in the Conference 21 semifinal.
During the regular season, Garcia scored 12 goals and after scoring five goals in conference playoff game, he remained very humble and mentioned it wasn’t just about him.
“It’s all about the team,” Garcia said. “We all fought hard for this win tonight.”
The win sealed a Park View bid to the VHSL 4A North region playoffs and a shot to play for the Conference 21 championship on Tuesday, May 26 at 6 p.m. against No. 1 Sherando High School in Stephens City.
“We played well,” Park View head coach Arturo Jimenez said. “We wanted to slow the game down and play the ball into the middle, not just knock the ball towards the net, that was our game plan going in.”
Scoring:
57’ H Jonathan Martinez
59’ PV Remberg Garcia
63’ H Jonathan Martinez
64’ PV Remberg Garcia
78’ PV Remberg Garcia
78’ PV Remberg Garcia
79’ PV Remberg Garcia
Spencer DuPuis is a junior at Heritage High School in Leesburg. Follow LoCoSports on Twitter (@LoCoSports) for up-to-date news and scores from around Loudoun County.
