By LUKE JOHNSON
Special to the Tribune
Shiguma Takeuchi’s goal in the opening three minutes of a Diablo Foothill Athletic League boys’ soccer match was all Dougherty Valley High School needed to put away host Alhambra last Wednesday night.
The Bulldogs (2-7-2) had many chances, but were shutout, 1-0, after a shot on goal difference of 19-5. Wildcat (2-8) goalie Kai Polhammer had 15 saves, but said keeping his opponents scoreless was easy.
“The defense was making all the shots hard. It wasn’t really too difficult,” he said. “The shots weren’t free, ever. … The only shots they could get off were weak,” he said.
Alhambra coach Rory Gentry expressed his frustrations with the officiating immediately after the final whistle, and exclaimed from the sideline to the center judge that he was the worst referee he has ever seen, and that he was going to bring this to the attention of the North Coast Section.
“The center referee was too far away from the play to make the accurate calls. He wasn’t using his assistant referees, who were waving flags for fouls, waving flags for offsides and so forth.
In fact, the assistant referee had to talk to the center referee about the way he was calling the game, because we had at least three things that happened in our attack that should have been a penalty kick,” Gentry said in an interview after the match.
“Referees don’t win and lose games. I want that clearly noted. We had plenty of opportunities to create something to score goals, and we just didn’t.”
The officials were unavailable for comment after the match.
Controversy and tempers continued into the post-match handshake when Gentry yelled toward Dougherty Valley coach Jim Harari, “Tell your players to stop slapping my hand!”
When asked what happened from his perspective, Harari said, “I don’t think I know.”
Gentry later explained and alleged that Dougherty Valley players were not offering friendly high fives, but were aggressively smacking the hands of his players and assistant coaches.
“We had a problem with them last year too. Some of that carried over, but it’s a new year. You expect things to be different,” Gentry said.
This was the first win for Dougherty Valley in league, now 1-4; while Alhambra is still winless at 0-2-1.
