After a team’s first loss of the season, the phrase “everyone makes the playoffs” starts to become the catch phrase at the community center during an adult sports season. Co-ed soccer is no different.
Only three of the eight teams that started the season with high hopes of finishing at the top ended the seven game regular season with more wins than losses. Four teams finished with the exact same record of 2-4-1 going into the first week of playoffs: Sato Real Estate, Acqua Aveda, Moss Builders and Ross Built Construction. Mar/Kis Insurance tied their last game with Moss Builders ending with a 1-5-1 record.
Slim’s Place finished with a single loss that came in the last game to Mulock Flynn Law who finished in the second seed. Jiffy Lube settled into third place with a win over Sato Real Estate during the first game of the night Thursday, Nov. 9.
Team Captain Josh Sato put early points on the scoreboard for Sato Real Estate with a strong long strike against older brother Jason Sato in goal for Jiffy Lube.
Jiffy Lube started the game with Ricky Anderson back on the field after an injury early in the season. The Anderson brothers showed their skills and abilities on the field early with a quick response goal by captain Danny Anderson. Sato Real Estate’s goalie Adam Mott was drawn off and with defender Nate Talucci slightly out of reach the score was tied 1-1 after just four minutes of play.
Two minutes later Josh Sato found himself in perfect scoring position in front of the goal for the easy tap in score. D. Anderson saw his opportunity to once again tie the soccer game with a beautiful assist by Chris Klotz.
Klotz got his own statistic by using his ball handling and control along with patience on the field before taking the shot past Mott at the ninth minute of the game to push Jiffy Lube up by a goal.
As expected, Sato Real Estate would keep the scoring pressure on their opponent. Nate Welch scored his lone goal of the game with five minutes left in the first half. Welch’s goal took the score to three goals all.
Great saves by both goalies kept the offense of both teams working hard to break the tie. Finally, with seconds quickly ticking off the scoreboard clock, R. Anderson struck hard only to be batted away by Mott. Mott’s save bounced the soccer ball right back to the feet of R. Anderson.
With 30 seconds left in the half, R. Anderson took advantage of a rattled Mott and scored Jiffy Lube’s fourth goal of the game. Welch tried to put another point on the board for Sato Real Estate, but the shot hit hard off the goal post to end the first 23 minutes of play.
Josh Sato took over protecting his team’s goal as Mott took the field. Jiffy Lube quickly proved to Team Sato Real Estate that they are a top tier team with another Klotz-D. Anderson combination. Well into the 30th minute of play, D. Anderson scored with a shot into the right corner of the net to widen his team’s lead by two goals.
Down on the Jiffy Lube end of the pitch, Mott found the ball at his feet. Looking for an open man, Mott hit Zorn Kolega in front of the goal for a skillful header and a goal advancing the score to 4-5.
Anderson took advantage of Sato Real Estate’s goalie out of position after out maneuvering Kolega for another shot and his fourth goal of the game. Five minutes later, R. Anderson took strong leg to the soccer ball, sailing it just past the feet of Josh Sato for the final goal of the game, ending with the score 4-7 and Jiffy Lube’s fifth win of the season.
The first quarterfinal play off game on Thursday matches #4 seed Moss Builders against the fifth ranked Sato Real Estate. Playing the 7 p.m. game pits third place regular season finishers Jiffy Lube against sixth seed Acqua Aveda. The number two team Mulock Flynn Law faces #7 seed Ross Built Construction at 8 p.m. The topped ranked Slim’s Place looks to knock off last place Mar/Kis Insurance in the final game of the night.
Each team is planning to fight hard to play another game toward the league championship and capture the Paul “Ace” Hayward Cup and post-game celebrations at Slim’s Place.
Adult Co-Ed Soccer League
Jiffy Lube 7 (5-2)
Sato Real Estate 4 (2-4-1)
Ross Built Construction 2 (2-4-1)
Acqua Aveda 2 (2-4-1)
Mulock Flynn Law 5 (5-1-1)
Slim’s Place 4 (6-1)
Moss Builders 5 (2-4-1)
Mar/Kis Insurance 5 (1-5-1)
