Honkers clip 'Hawks

Bobby Mendoza's header with basically no time left Wednesday night lifted the Yuba City High boys soccer team to a 1-0 win over visiting Natomas.

Mendoza's goal came in what could be termed as "injury time," as it was beyond the regulation 40 minutes allotted for high school halves.

"I had us scoring at 411⁄2 minutes," Honkers assistant coach Steve Tennis said. "If I was the other coach, I would have been screaming '40 minutes, 40 minutes.'"

Both Tennis and head coach Paul Shank admitted they could not recall there being any injury in the second half that would have extended regulation play.

Isaac Mora set up the winning goal with a corner kick from the right side.

"I saw it curving in so I just dove for it," Mendoza said.

The shot snaked just inside the left upright.

Fifteen seconds later the final whistle blew.

"That's the way it's going to be all year long," Shank said, noting it will be a tight race for the Tri-County Conference championship.

"They are the Section champion and return a lot of players, and now they are 0-2," Shank added about the Nighthawks (6-2-4).

Yuba City (10-2-5), meanwhile, is 1-0-1 in the TCC.

"The win should help the kids' confidence," Shank said. "They knew they should have beaten Woodland."

The Honkers tied Woodland on Monday, 1-1.

Shank said he had a feeling Yuba City might win eight minutes into the second half when the Honkers dodged a bullet.

The Nighthawks' Tyler Clay made a run up the middle, splitting two Honker defenders before taking a shot on goal. Yuba City goalie Carlos Vasquez blocked the shot but in so doing fell to the ground. Meanwhile, Clay followed up on the play by getting the ball back as he stood before a wide open net.

Clay's second shot on goal mysteriously sailed wide left.

"I knew at that point we were supposed to win," Shank said.

Although, the Honkers made it interesting by prolonging things.

"What happened on that shot?" Shank asked Mora, who barely missed scoring with 15 minutes left in the game. "You just wanted to wait for us to score at the end."

Mora, whom Shank called the spark plug of the Honkers' offense, took a long throw-in from Walker Shaw and dribbled in from the left flank. When he was right in front of the cage, Mora fired a hard shot unguarded that sailed wide right.

Meanwhile, Miseal Hernandez actually put a ball in the net for Yuba City, but the goal, with 13 minutes left, was called back.

"They called hand ball," Shank said, noting just before he took his shot, the ball glanced off Hernandez's hand, which he was using to help lift himself up off the turf.

"We have 16 guys who play hard," Shank said. "It was a total team effort."

Shank said the MVP was Vasquez, who made more than a half-dozen diving saves in goal and also stopped a point-blank range shot in the first half.

Trevor Kent did an excellent job on defense marking Natomas' leading forward, Daniel Cuevas. Sweeper Jordan George and stopper Pedro Guzman also were nails on defense, as was Antonio Uriostegui.

Jeff Funk, Adrian Martinez and Shaw played well in the midfield.

Contact sports reporter Richard Myers at 749-4714 or rmyers@appeal-democrat.com.