The Wenatchee All Stars won the NISA Independent Cup’s Pacific Region Championship with a 1-0 victory over Bay Cities FC in Redwood City on Saturday night. Wenatchee recently won its second consecutive Cascadia Premier League championship, while Bay Cities is in its initial season as a member of NISA.
Kamal Sabar scored the only goal of the match in the second minute of first half stoppage time, after he was taken down hard by Bay Cities’ Jacob Penner, 30 yards from goal. As the subsequent free kick made its way into the penalty area, Sabar was left unmarked and headed the ball past goalkeeper Alan Cruz-Gomez.
Sabar nearly added a second goal on a shot from close range early in the second half, but the ball bounced off of Cruz-Gomez’s knee and out of danger.
The first 25 minutes of the match featured end-to-end action, but few scoring chances. But Bay Cities began asserting itself as the half went on.
The host side had a decent chance in the 30th minute, when Andres Jimenez stole a pass and played a direct ball to Edson Cardona streaking down the right sideline. Cardona ran into the penalty area, but his soft shot went straight into goalkeeper Alexis Calderria’s hands.
Antonio Jimenez created another chance for Bay Cities in the 37th minute, when he received a pass along the right sideline, shielded the ball from two defenders, and took a shot from 15 yards that required a leaping save from Calderria.
In the 41st minute, Victor Romero maneuvered around two defenders and fired a right-footed shot from 22 yards out with heavy backspin that Calderria smothered to prevent giving up a rebound.
Bay Cities continued the hunt for the equalizer in the second half. In the 50th minute, Cardona’s free kick from 25 yards out sailed over Calderria’s head, bounced off of the crossbar, and was cleared over the endline by a Wenatchee defender.
Bay Cities appeared to have evened the match in the 57th minute, after Calderria lost the ball after a challenge by Josiah Romero and Adolfo Trujillo put the ball into the empty net. But Romero was called for a foul and eventually received a yellow card for dissent.
Things suddenly became much more difficult for Bay Cities in the 74th minute, when Cruz-Gomez took down Luis Navarrete 20 yards from goal to prevent him from scoring on a breakaway. Cruz-Gomez received a straight red card. Alonso Lara took over in goal, but the hosts would have to play the remainder of the match with 10 men.
Josiah Romero had a chance for Bay Cities on a direct ball out of the back in the 77th minute, but his shot went wide for a corner kick.
Bay Cities’ final chance came in the 89th minute on a corner kick, but there wasn’t enough power on Kevin Salto Aguilar’s bicycle kick to trouble Calderria.
In the 90th minute, Wenatchee’s Lenin Guzman nearly put the match out of reach, but Lara was able to redirect his shot off of the crossbar and over the endline for a corner.
The NISA Independent Cup features 9 groups of 4 teams each from coast to coast. Each group features one professional NISA member along with 3 amateur clubs. Wenatchee qualified for the Independent Cup final with wins over Battleborn FC of Carson City, Nevada and Modesto City Football Club.
The match was Bay Cities’ first since their 3-0 home loss to FC Chattanooga on June 18th.
