TURLOCK, CA – Sunday’s 4th round match of the LIGA Norcal had Academica hosting the visiting Elk Grove Everton. Academica was coming into this match on 3-match win streak in all competitions while Elk Grove was coming off a 4-0 loss to Davis Legacy. This was the first meeting between both teams this season. AC started with Hernandez in goal; Alcauter, Torralva, Martinez, and Lopez-Ellis in the back; Plascencia, L. Martinez, and Chongtoua in the midfield; with B. Ceja, R. Ceja, and Golbad leading the front lines.
The match kicked off with the Black and Gold maintaining the bulk of possession. Elk Grove could not get out of their own half in the opening 10 minutes. The first real opportunity of the match fell to Chongtoua as his point blank shot was saved by EFC GK Timeo Arellano with R. Ceja’s rebound shot also being pushed wide. Only a couple of minutes later, R.Ceja turned his marker inside out and was able to get a shot off that Arellano easily handled. The match had to wait till the 37’ for the first goal when Edwin Rodriguez found space on the right side and whipped a cross into Chongtoua who tapped into an open goal. This was Chongtoua’s first goal of the season. Elk Grove hung on till halftime keeping the match at just 1-0.
The second half started much like the first with AC dominating possession and keeping pressure on the EG defense. This paid off in the 54’ as Torralva was able to pick the ball off an EG defender and beat the keeper to double AC’s lead. This opened the floodgates for the Black and Gold as they would score another two goals in the next 6 minutes with Golbad and R. Ceja both adding their names to the score sheet. The goal of the match was scored in the 68’ when Golbad backheeled a whipped in cross to make it 5-0 and Rodriguez wrapped up the game with the 6th goal in the 89’ off a clean break away. The scoreboard read 6-0 at the final whistle.
This was Academica’s 4th win in a row and catapulted them to 2nd in the table. AC is back at home this Sunday we host Modesto United. The match kicks off at 4 pm with free admission to all fans.