Sonoma County Sol seeking another national championship

Don’t be too worried if the Sonoma County Sol is down at the half during its National Premier Soccer League championship game Saturday in Cleveland.

The team has made a habit of come-from-behind victories during its playoff run this season.

The county’s premier semipro soccer team is seeking its second national title after winning it all in 2009. The team lost in the finals in 2013.

“I feel like we’re more experienced coming from behind than holding a lead,” said center forward Taylor Varnadore on Tuesday.

After winning the Golden Gate League with an 8-4-2 record, the team has won four playoff games, coming back to win in two of them.

At 4 p.m. Saturday, the Sol will take on the winners of the Midwest-Northeast bracket, the AFC Cleveland Royals, in Cleveland. The game will be streamed live, from the team’s website and Facebook page.

Last Saturday, the Sol clinched their championship spot with a 2-1 comeback win over Chattanooga in Tennessee.

After going up 1-0 in the sixth minute, Chattanooga held on until late in the game. With 10 minutes left in the game, that score held and the Sol faced elimination to the previously undefeated team.

“They dominated us in the first half,” coach Vinnie Cortezzo said. “They could have scored a couple times. Fortunately for us, they just scored once.”

Then in the 80th minute, the Sol’s Noah Paravicini broke through to even the score.

“We started to grab ahold of the game in the second half. The last 20 minutes, it was all us,” Cortezzo said.

Tied at 1, the three minutes of stoppage time had begun when Chattanooga made a dangerous run.

But defender Edgar Amador left his feet to block a shot and the Sol went on a counterattack.

The ball ended up at the feet of Marco Barragon, who led midfielder Simon Wheatley on a run to the goal.

He took it on one touch past a defender and hit a rocket into the upper corner to put the Sol up 2-1.

The crowd, the largest the Sol had seen all year, had been deafening all game, Varnadore said, making it hard to communicate on the field.

“It got quiet,” Cortezzo said. “We silenced a pretty loud 12,000 fans. We had about 20 fans there. It was a pretty incredible feeling to be in that environment, in a stadium like that, and to win the way we did.”

The Sol’s bench was in front of the home team’s ultra-fan group called the Chattahooligans.

“They were probably the friendliest hooligans you’ll ever meet,” Cortezzo said. “Southern hospitality is not a myth. At the end, their fans did a chant for us. They were really gracious in defeat, which was a nice change of pace from what we often see.”

For Wheatley, too, scoring the winning goal in front of such a big crowd made for a sweet memory, the coach said.

“He’s one of our veteran guys who probably has a couple years left. For him, it’s very likely a pinnacle moment,” Cortezzo said.

Each of the Sol’s four subs made an impact in the game.

Barragon got the assist, Wheatley scored, Amador had the block at the other end and Sean Callahan was a strong force in midfield, he said.

Goalkeeper Sean Taufer had a couple of big saves, including a crucial one at the start of the second half that would have put the Sol at a 2-0 disadvantage.

“That huge save kept us within striking distance,” Cortezzo said.

The game capped a roller-coaster playoff run so far.

In their first playoff game, they were down 1-0 at the half and came back to win, 3-1. The next game was less stressful, as they beat the North County Battalion 3-0.

In San Diego two weeks ago, they beat Albion, who had been undefeated, 1-0.

“I think we were the second-lowest-seeded team going into the playoffs,” Cortezzo said.

The lower seed meant more road playoff games, which means no gate income for the team, which is a nonprofit and relies on donations and sponsorships.

It also means playing in front of much larger crowds than the Sol see in Santa Rosa.

“Playing on the road was something we knew had to be done,” Varnadore said. “But it has been awesome so far.”

The semipro team is made up of volunteers, mostly familiar names from area high schools as well as Santa Rosa Junior College and Sonoma State. Some other teams have large enough budgets they are able to pay players and fund efforts to attract fans.

Still, the Sol’s talent is on par with the bigger clubs. They’ve won three of the past four Golden Gate Conference titles.

Varnadore feels confident going into Saturday’s game that the Sol are in rhythm.

“We went through a league that was much more different than last year,” he said. “It saw us take a couple loses here and there and more draws then we were used to. But we found our stride at the right time in the playoffs.”

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.