The Wine Country Derby
This past Saturday was the fourth iteration of the Wine County Derby between Napa Valley 1839 and Sonoma County Sol. The two teams tied in their first two meetings, but Sonoma finally got an edge in this budding rivalry in the last day of the 2017 season, beating Napa 3-0.
Napa Valley are relative new comers to the league with 2017 being their inaugural season, but Sonoma have been a staple of the league since joining as a founding club in 2004. The club won the league in 2009 and have been runners up three times (2005, 2013, and 2016). The Petaluma based side has also regularly represented the NPSL in the US Open cup but has not progressed past the second round in the competition. The club has called Casa Grande High School home since the 2017 season.
Heading into the Derby, Sonoma found themselves winless and at the bottom of the Golden Gate Conference. That didn’t seem to deter the players – they seemed to be in a relaxed and positive mood through warm ups and the pregame ceremonies.
The match kicked off with Napa having much of possession early on. Napa were rewarded for their dominance 10 minutes into the match after Bryan Marin scored after a slick through ball by Napa midfielder Lukas Schubert. After the goal, Sonoma found their footing in the match. They came close to equalizing a few times and came tantalizingly close in the 33rd minute when the ball rolled along the entire goal line with no one to tap it in. Napa had chance to add to their lead at the stroke of half time but the Sonoma keeper did well to keep the deficit at only one goal.
I usually use the break at halftime to check out the home sides amenities, but there were none of note for Sonoma County Sol. No merch tents or concession stands, just a decently kept restroom.
Sonoma came out of the break the better side and had a chance fizz just over the crossbar in the 53rd minute. 10 minutes later, Napa committed a foul in a dangerous area about 30 yards from their goal. The free kick was viciously swung in and bounced off a Napa player into his own goal. After the score was tied, both teams kicked their attacks into high gear. But the enthusiastic search for a late goal caused a lot of the attacking runs made by each side to be flagged offsides.
As the game was approaching the 90th minute, controversy struck.
Sonoma drove into Napa’s penalty area and flicked an innocuous cross that appeared to come off the defender’s hand. The center referee initially waved off the claims of handball, but the Sonoma players protested fiercely. The Assistant Referee gestured that he saw something since the play unfolded on his side of the pitch. After short deliberation, a penalty was awarded. That sent the Napa players into a meltdown as they could sense that hard fought points were slipping away. Sonoma’s Omar Nuno made no mistake from the spot and gave the home team all three points in the contentious derby.
The win in this Wine Country Derby has vaulted Sonoma out of the cellar and are now 6th in the 8 team Golden Gate Conference with 5 points in 6 games played. Napa Sit just above them in 5th with 7 points from 7 games played.
I seem to be a bit of a bad luck charm for Napa, since both matches I have covered of theirs have resulted in some very dramatic, entertaining, and devastating losses. We will see if their fortunes will change when I head to Hayward to see them take on East Bay Stompers on June 16th.
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