COACH TOM STRETTON WINS D3 CIF CHAMPIONSHIP WITH PATRICK HENRY
Patrick Henry No. 2 seed played Escondido High school No.1 seed in the 2020 DIV 3 CIF Final. In what was a closely fought final, Patrick Henry prevailed 2-1 scoring a golden goal winner with little more than 5 mins remaining on the clock preventing a penalty shootout.
Patrick Henry dominated the early exchanges creating 2 or 3 very good chances to open the scoring and eventually did brake the deadlock in the 13th minute. Josh Gama played a perfectly weighted assist over the high backline of Escondido to put Jonathon Moreno in behind with a perfectly timed run. He calmly took down the pass a guided the ball past the keeper to give the Patriots the lead.
Despite Patrick Henry’s early dominance, Escondido remained defiant and responded with their own good passages of play creating problems for Henry with good link-up play off the forwards and their ability to overload on their left channel. It was this that would lead to a goal in the 16th minute for Escondido and bring the game back all square at 1-1
The game would continue to play out with both teams having good moments in the game creating good opportunities only to be denied either by good goalkeeping or the woodwork. Escondido hit the post in the later stages of the first half and then Patrick henry would hit the bar twice in quick succession in the second.
However, neither team could take advantage of their momentum and it would result in 15mins of overtime and golden goal. With a change of formation, Patrick Henry applied more pressure with a more direct style of play and in the 10th minute of overtime from a throw, the ball would find its way through to Julien Garcia from an assist off Diego Barragan who despite an unsure first touch held his composure to find the bottom corner of the goal to take the win for the Patriots and the div 3 championship.
The team not only won CIF but also the Francis parker cup div 3 championship, San Diego county cup D1 championship and the City league championship
Micheal Medina and Josh Gama would make city all-league first team and Jonathon Moreno would make city all-league second team.
Crusaders players on Varsity at Patrick Henry:
Jacob Bear, Josh Gama, Jonathon Moreno, Diego Barragan, Alessandro Zarattini and Michael Medina – Boys 2002 Academy
Leinad Segura, Sam Marquez, and Keegan Ferreira – Boys 2003 Academy team