February 25, 2005

Back to the table of Contents Page

Classifieds

Palo Alto Online

Gunn takes shot at the title

by Keith Peters

Alex Guzinski knows all about playing in a Central Coast Section championship match. Two seasons ago, as a sophomore, Guzinski scored the winning goal in the Titans' Division I title-clinching victory over Bellarmine.

Guzinski is now a senior. Today, he will lead his teammates against another West Catholic Athletic League foe, Mitty, in the CCS Division II finals at Piedmont Hills High in San Jose. Game time is 4:45 p.m.

Top-seeded Gunn is 20-2-4. Third-seeded Mitty is 15-5-8. This will be the Titans' third championship appearance. For the Monarchs, it's their second - the first since they won the 1972 title over Silver Creek at, of all places, Gunn.

Gunn has the most recent championship experience. Until this season, Mitty hasn't advanced past the quarterfinals since 1998.

The Titans, however, have to be physically and emotionally tired from their penalty-kick shootout triumph over rival Palo Alto on Tuesday at Piedmont Hills. The teams were tied, 1-1, after 80 minutes of regulation. They played two 10-minute overtime periods. And two of sudden death that last five minutes each.

After 110 minutes of playing, the teams went to penalty kicks. Gunn made four and Paly missed two.

"We're all dead tired," said Guzinski, the Most Valuable Player in the SCVAL De Anza Division this season who played all 110 minutes, scored his team's goal and led off the penalty kicks with a successful attempt. "Now, we have to get ready for the final. The season won't be complete until we win the title."

The Titans spent Wednesday just trying to regroup. Coach David Burgee didn't even know if he was going to hold a regular practice.

"We will be looking at another tough game," Burgee said. "Mitty won the Homestead Christmas Cup (where Gunn finished third). We need to get emotionally ready. We expended a lot of energy . . . We still have our work to do. Eighty more minutes. One more to go."

Today's championship game likely won't be as emotional as the Gunn-Paly showdown, even with a title at stake. The two rivals are arguably the two best teams in Division II this season and there are those who believed the Vikings should have been either a No. 2 or 3 seed and in the bracket opposite Gunn.

Nevertheless, the two had to play each other at some point and Tuesday's result, as expected, was draining as neither coach slept much afterward.

"I woke up a few times," said Don Briggs, Paly's second-year coach.

"I didn't sleep at all," said Burgee, also in his second year. "I was a little bit wound up."

Imagine how their players felt.

"This was a hard played game by two good teams," Briggs said. "We had our chances to score, and so did they. What a way to go. It's like a basketball game finishing in a tie and the outcome being determined by free throws.

"I wish Gunn the best of luck. I'd like to see them win a championship."

Now, the Titans need to make sure their marathon effort on Tuesday night isn't wasted.

"This game is insignificant if we don't win the title," Burgee said.

While Tuesday's match goes into the record book as a tie, it certainly felt like a victory for the Titans. Gunn is 0-3-2 against Paly over the past two seasons.

"We finally got the demon off our backs after going winless against Palo Alto the last two years," said Guzinski, whose header off Doug Simpson's free kick tied the match just three minutes into the second half. "What we accomplished tonight makes up for all those other games against Palo Alto."

It appeared the Vikings might make it a clean sweep for two years of matches against Gunn when senior Pierre Meloty-Kapella sped down the right sideline in the first half and fired a cross into the penalty area. The ball appeared to ricochet off Gunn's Max Zipperstein and then Ian Barnett before bounding past keeper Brian Weinstein.

Burgee said Guzinski's answer was critical.

"We certainly answered very quickly," he said. "If Paly had been able to hold us off a little longer, it might have been a different story."

With the match deadlocked, the defenses took over. Paly's Cameron Taylor, Alex Jugant, Patrick Alonis and Ben Flamm were excellent. Gunn's Zipperstein, Vinny Beltrami, Anton Horwath, Avery Naar and Simpson were their equal. Not too surprising, Taylor and Simpson were Co-Defensive Players of the Year in the De Anza Division this season.

Despite the superlative defense, both teams had their opportunities to end the match before penalty kicks.

Paly senior Manny Barragan, the Offensive Player of the Year in the De Anza Division, appeared to score on a header from Peter Lenke with 13 minutes remaining in regulation, but head referee Colin Lindores ruled that Barragan had used his right elbow against a Gunn defender while going after the ball.

In the first of two five-minute sudden-death periods, Gunn's Gilmar Arellano took advantage of Alonis falling down and had a one-on-one against Paly keeper Harrison Newkirk, who was outstanding all night long (as was Weinstein). Arellano, however, lost control of his dribble as he attempted to go around a charging Newkirk and the ball rolled over the end line to end that threat.

Forced into penalty kicks, Guzinski and Beltrami made theirs and Paly equaled that with Ed Chang and David White converting. Horwath then made his shot, but Lenke clanged a shot off the left post to give Gunn a 3-2 advantage.

Ryan McDermott led off the fourth round by nailing a shot into the upper right corner of the net, leaving Paly's Jean Choi to keep his team alive. Choi, however, missed wide right and it was time for the Titans to celebrate. And they did as fans and friends poured onto the field and gathered up the Gunn players in their arms.

"I've never experienced anything like this before," Burgee said of the penalty-kick situation in such emotionally charged match. This is such a sweet win for our program and our kids. It was a pleasure just to be a part of it."

Briggs could say the same for his team, which will lose 10 starters and 13 seniors total. That group includes Barragan, Chang, Choi, Flamm, Jugant, Lenke, Meloty-Kapella, Newkirk, Taylor, White plus Danny Duarte, Estevan Guerrero (sidelined by injury in CCS play) and David Lefebrve.

Gunn, meanwhile, will lose only six starters while returning its entire defensive back line minus Zipperstein.

Burgee will concern himself with those matters later. There's still one more game to be won, perhaps one more moment to cherish. A chance to enjoy his fine senior class one last time.

"For me," Burgee said of today's finale, "it will be pretty bittersweet, no matter what happens. This group of kids is so special. They have really changed my life."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.