NorCal Game of the Week April 14th: El Farolito Win Home Opener Against Sacramento Gold

El Farolito returned home to Boxer Stadium for their first League match since winning the San Francisco Soccer Football League last fall. The Club has since joined the NPSL and marked their home opener with a classic Farolito performance.

The home side controlled large portions of the game to win the match in convincing fashion by a score of 3-0 over former NPSL champions and long-time Golden Gate Conference power, Sacramento Gold.

The match started off very aggressively under the mid day sun in San Francisco as both sides were able to work a shot on target inside the first 5 minutes of the match. Both sides seemed intent to attack early with neither side taking control of the game for the first 20 minutes.

That all changed as one of Sacramento Gold’s more important players, Danny Cuevas, went down with an injury, forcing his side to play with 10 men for a long stretch of time before he reentered the match. El Farolito took advantage of this in the 21st minute, when Edson Cardona found himself in on goal on the left side of the box and used the outside of his left foot to beat the keeper to give his side the 1-0 lead.

Not long after, Sacramento was hit with another injury to a key player, this time Roberto Mendoza, once again forcing them to play down a man before he was able to re-enter the game. Like the first time, Farolito took advantage of the extra man to double the lead, this time by Arnold Rivas who blasted an effort from the top of the box when no Sacramento player came to close him down.

El Farolito took the 2-0 lead into the half time break. The two injured Gold players who re-entered the match were both subbed off early in the second half, still feeling the effects of the injury, forcing their side to play without two of their top players.

Both sides came out of the half time break much like the 1st half with chances falling to both sides. Farolito’s Carlos Montes saw his early effort blocked before Sacramento Gold’s Fardeen Shaiwany forced the Farolito keeper into a big save to preserve his clean sheet.

El Farolito began to slowly turn up the pressure and grab control of the match as Sacramento began to tire, but were unable to put the game away based on all the chances they were creating. At this point, the match started to become very chippy, with hard tackles and yellow cards coming in for both sides.

El Farolito finally sealed the match in the 89th minute when substitute Yahua Gonzales buried the free kick from the edge of the box off the post to put the game to bed with his side now ahead 3-0. Farolito moved to 8 points in the season, and have yet to lose a match since joining the NPSL.