Boys Soccer: Spartans Top Whittier Christian in PKs

Heading into penalty kicks with his team’s second round match Wednesday against Whittier Christian knotted at two after 100 minutes of play, La Cañada coach Barry Ritson huddled his team on the field and asked who wanted to volunteer to be one of the initial five shooters.

Four immediately raised their hands — senior forward Matthew Cannata did not.

But after some cajoling from his coach, Cannata relented and was penned in as the Spartans’ fifth and final option. As it turns out, Cannata's decision was the right one. Cannata snuck his PK underneath a diving Dylan Murphy to seal a 5-4 victory in penalty kicks and lead the top-seeded Spartans to Friday’s quarterfinal round of the CIF-Southern Section Division V playoffs.

“I brought the kids in, I said, ‘OK who wants to take them?’ ” Ritson said. “Four kids put their hands up and I said, ‘OK Matty, you’re going fifth.’

“ … Did I twist Matty’s arm a little bit? Absolutely. But he didn’t have any problems taking it, and it was a good penalty.”

Cannata was in position to be the hero in part because Aram Bagramyan, Brian Blumenfeld, Cameron Meeker and Armand Bagramyan all buried their own PKs, and because Spartans goalie Jack Hale stopped the Herald’s second attempt, diving to his left to make the save.

“I just hold on and wait for (the shot) because eventually the kid is going to have to show you which way he’s going,” Hale said. “When they line up straight with the ball they have to open their hips really, really wide to get it so it was easy to read.”

But with the game’s outcome in his hands, Cannata was remarkably composed. He took his time walking up to the ball. Not so much envisioning what he was going to do, but rather maximizing every last second of rest available.

“I was just trying to gather my breath, you know,” Cannata said. “A long game, I wanted my legs to regain energy so I could take a shot.”

And then he flicked a switch and uncorked a shot into the bottom-right corner of the goal to set off a massive celebration in front of the home crowd. The once stoic Cannata, suddenly let the emotion flow.

The Spartans (24-0-2) certainly made sure to enjoy the win, but they were quick to acknowledge that they did not play their best game Wednesday.

The Spartans out shot the Heralds 22-7 in regulation, but only found two of those shots reach the back of the net. Their offensive struggles continued in the two extra periods as players either rocketed shots nowhere near the goal or right at the Whittier Christian keeper. And on the two occasions that La Cañada did score, the Spartans were unable to hold onto their lead for long.

Alex Lee gave LCHS a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute, but Whittier Christian forward Mark Vasquez tied it with a goal off a free kick just four minutes later. Armand Bagramyan game La Cañada another one-goal lead in the 44th minute, and once again the Heralds (14-7-3) soon had an answer. Kasey Craft’s goal in the 56th minute tied the game at two.

“I don’t think we played very well today. I’ll be honest, I thought it was our worst performance of the season,” Ritson said. “Am I happy to get through? Absolutely. Am I happy with how the boys played? Absolutely not. I thought we were terrible at times today.”

Hale also was disappointed in the effort he saw from the Spartans, noting that they’ll have to play better in the quarterfinals.

“We have a lot of work to do in between now and Friday,” Hale said. “We wanted to win this by more obviously as the No. 1 seed. Every game we want to make a statement, but a win is a win.”

A previous version of this article misspelled Matthew Cannata's last name. Patch apologizes for the error.