Academica SC Defeats FC Davis 7-1
The penultimate match day of the Golden Gate Conference saw Academica SC host FC Davis at the Academica Fields on a warm Saturday night. Academica was coming off a 0-0 draw against conference leaders El Farolito, while Davis looked to recover from a 6-1 drumming at the hands of the Sacramento Gold. That unfortunately did not go according to plan.
From the first whistle, Academica instantly applied pressure to Davis’ back four. In just the third minute, Alex Bettencourt found space on the wing just outside the 18 before cutting in and unleashing a rocket of a shot that found the far post to open the scoring. Ten minutes later, leading scorer Cody Golbad drew a foul just outside the box for Academica and Bettencourt once again found the back of the net with a direct low shot to the far post.
Bettencourt’s night wasn’t finished as he collected an errant pass from the Davis defender to unleash a rocket that the Davis keeper could only parry to the feet of Golbad, who smashed it home to make it 3-0 before the 30th minute. Davis attempted to get back into the game through several counter attacks but Academica’s defensive duo of Brennen Canfield and Desmond Madrigal were able to neutralize any threat before they could reach Martin Sanchez’s goal.
Bettencourt capped his Man of the Match performance with a long ball behind the Davis backline that Golbad was able to collect and chip over the advancing keeper to make the score 4-0 before halftime.
The second half saw some changes to the AC line up with the lead securely in hand. A throw-in in the 58th minute led to a dropped ball from Sanchez and Fermin Chaidez was unable to clear the ball as Brian Ford squeaked it over the line to pull one back for Davis. The comeback wasn’t in the cards though as this score line would hold until the 86th minute when Adrian Plasciencia collected a pass from Bettencourt on top of the 18. He ripped a shot that Davis’ keeper flapped into the back of his net. Only a couple of minutes later, Mane Villegas played in Edwin Rodriguez down the left flank whose low cross found Ramiro Ceja in the 18 and he was able to convert his shot to make it 6-1 in the dying moments. Rodriguez closed out the match with a flicked-on header from a Jorge Carmona cross to finalize the score at 7-1.
This match saw the close of Academica’s home match schedule in front of a crowd of over 250 spectators. The last match day of the regular season sees AC traveling to East Bay to take on the Stompers while FC Davis hosts conference leaders El Farolito at home.
Contributor: Simon Bettencourt/Academica SC
Photo Credit: Brittney Virgo/Academica SC
