SAN JOSE — There were certainly a few elements of a Hollywood script for Richmond in Wednesday’s Northern California Division II semifinal. The Oilers got six saves and several catches in traffic from Alejandro Rodriguez across regulation and extra time, plus one more big save in the penalty kick shootout, and Nepali immigrant Diraj Magar scored the winning goal to send Richmond through to the regional championship, 4-2 winners over Bellarmine in penalty kicks after going scoreless for 95 minutes.
Rodriguez’s save on Jake Rhodes in the opening round of the shootout paved the way for Richmond (15-2-9), with all four Oiler shooters converting, capped off by Magar’s strike to seal the win.
Richmond had a golden opportunity to win the game less than 20 seconds into overtime, but Matt Martin lunged and stretched for a phenomenal save on freshman Octavio Munoz’s 20-yard volley to keep Bellarmine (15-7-4) alive, at least for the moment.
Martin made six saves as the Bells got the bulk of the opportunities in regulation and extra time while third-seeded Richmond had the higher-quality chances, highlighted by Munoz’s chance, one that looked so good that he had started to raise his arms in celebration before realizing that Martin had kept it out.
The second-seeded Bells did have two solid chances to win it in overtime after controlling play for much of the period, with a Cole Hackett header going over the net in the 92nd minute and Rodriguez stopping a shot from Josh Tan a minute later.
Rodriguez was tested early and often, making his first save just two minutes in and handling a flurry of early Bellarmine chances.
“At the beginning of the game, we weren’t quite set,” said Richmond head coach Rene Siles.
Nobody was able to break through in 95 minutes, sending affairs to the shootout. After Rodriguez’s stop on Rhodes, Cristian Mejia gave Richmond the advantage. Gabi Martinez and Daniel Medina traded goals in the second round, but freshman Paxton Hall missed high for the Bells on their third attempt. After goals by Roberto Gonzalez and Caden Dowd, it was Magar who calmly picked the left side of the net to send the Oilers into Saturday’s championship against top-seeded Alisal.
For Bellarmine, the PK loss is frustrating, but Conor Salcido’s side goes out with a solid performance that would’ve been more than enough to win most games.
“I thought it could’ve gone either way,” said Salcido just after the conclusion of his third season leading the Bells. “They had awesome chances, we had really great chances both in overtime and in the last 10 minutes of regulation. I’m proud of our guys.”
