Boys soccer: Branson keeps rolling into first NorCal final
Ethan Winter helped set up the first goal and scored the second one as the Branson School boys soccer team’s first foray into the NorCal playoffs has the Bulls one step away from a championship.
Cooper Little scored in the first half then Winter and Drew Holden had goals in the final 20 minutes to lift the top-seeded Bulls to a 3-0 victory against No. 4 Fremont in the Division IV semifinals at College of Marin on Thursday.
Branson (12-6-3) advances to No. 2 Crystal Springs Upland (20-2-2) in Saturday’s 3 p.m. final at Novato High. Crystal Springs Upland defeated No. 6 Nipomo 5-0 in the other semifinal.
“Extremely excited,” Branson coach Tom Ryan said. “I’ve actually had a lot of wonderful moments in high school soccer over the years but to never have been at this level — it’s a big moment for the school, a big moment for our community and obviously I’ve never been there so it’s a first for me, too. It’s really exciting.”
Branson opted to go into a wind that was pretty fierce when it gusted with the hope of getting to the break in a decent position to make a run in the second half. The Bulls controlled the first 10 minutes of the game with Jonah Sher providing a pair of dangerous moments by making runs down the right side of the field and sending crosses into the box.
“I think for him, he hasn’t been playing wing for that long. It’s more of a recent decision to put him wing,” said Drew Holden, the target of Sher’s two early crosses. “This seems like a breakout game for him where he had a lot more confidence and I think he knew that the wind was actually going to be pushing against the ball so he could take those big touches and get that short burst of speed. Then his crosses were on point, every single one, and he was just able to put dots in.”
Fremont (17-9-4) had the run of play for the next 10 minutes of the game but, even going into the wind, the Bulls were able to flip the game back in their favor for the last 20 minutes or so – including the breakthrough goal.
Ethan Winter made a run centrally and found Sher out wide. Sher got to the end line, cut back in then sent a cross into the 6-yard box that Little got his foot to for a 1-0 lead in the 26th minute.
“Ethan’s been special for us during this run,” Ryan said. “We had him in the back line for most of the MCAL season and I think through the (North Coast Section playoffs) and now into NorCals he’s been in the midfield for us. So great composure and then he found the seam, a nice ball into Jonah’s run and Jonah kind of did the rest.
“We work a lot on is it a shooting angle or does somebody else have a better angle than you do? and he made the right decision there. It was Cooper who had the better angle and he just laid the ball across. Cooper had some work to do just to sort his feet out … then just made a nice play.”
Fremont’s best two chances of the half were both free kicks taken from 30-plus yards out by Justin Giron. The first flashed just high and wide left of Niccolo Machtoka-Farley’s goal and the second was right at the keeper for a comfortable save.
The Bulls felt good going into the half up 1-0 with their wind at their backs the rest of the way.
“At this level, if you can have the wind in your face and get out of the first half without conceding, you’re going to be super happy in the second half with it at your back,” Ryan said.
Sher was creating problems again for Fremont early in the second half, putting a shot on target that a defender blocked out wide for a corner kick in the 47th minute.
Fremont created its best chance in the 59th minute but the Bulls dealt with the threat and immediately launched a counterattack that resulted in the second goal a minute later.
Multiple Branson players had touches inside Fremont’s 18-yard box but were unable to find their way through a scrambling defense. The ball was partially cleared out to Winter, who took a touch to the inside then lashed a shot into the net from just outside the box for a 2-0 lead.
“I had the ball a little outside the 18 then I saw two guys and they were kind of to the right so I cut inside and I saw I had a lane,” Winter said. “I was initially not going to shoot it but then I was like ‘Might as well shoot it’ and I just had a really good angle so I’m really happy with it.”
Branson put the finishing touches on the win in the 72nd minute off a throw-in taken by Emmett Grossman. Holden made a run toward the end line but then curled toward the right side of the 18-yard box. Grossman’s diagonal throw found Holden in stride. Holden took one touch to get around a defender then blasted the ball into the net for a 3-0 lead.
“Me and Emmett just have that connection,” Holden said. “That was not a set play. That was just something that we thought of on the spot. I looked him in the eye. … I just hit a little neck flick back, you know ‘Play me through’ and it just happened to work out. It was a great decision from him to throw that.”