Hart High School junior Eduardo Nunez said he felt a little nervous walking up to take his penalty kick on Tuesday.
If he was, he didn’t show it.
With a berth in the CIF SoCal Regional Division 1 semifinals on the line, Nunez fired his shot past the El Camino Real Royals keeper to cap off a 4-2 penalty shootout victory on the road for the Hawks. The two teams went through regulation and overtime without scoring a goal.
“I feel happy right now,” Nunez said. “We’ve been working for a long time, and we’re happy … It’s not a team. It’s a family.”
It’s the second penalty shootout victory for the Hawks (17-4) during their playoff run. They also beat Mira Costa in a shootout to advance to the CIF Southern Section Open Division semifinals.
El Camino was looking to win its eighth straight game after winning the City Section Open Division on Saturday in overtime over Birmingham.
Hart senior goalkeeper Marco Gonzalez saved the first El Camino (20-3) attempt in the shootout after Hawks senior Justin Assadi put his team out in front to start things off.
Hart made two of its next three kicks while El Camino made its next two before missing its fourth, and Nunez followed that up with the decisive fifth penalty for Hart.
Hart head coach Alex Bernal said that first save from Gonzalez was crucial.
“It’s huge,” Bernal said. “I think anytime, especially in penalties, there’s only five, so if we can block the first one, it’s huge for us. And again, I trust Marco 100% fully in goal, and he came up big when he had to.”
The Royals were looking like the team to grab a goal right at the start of Tuesday’s game, only for Hart’s defense to come up big with a goal-line clearance after Gonzalez got a hand to a corner kick that fell to a Royals player right in front of the net. The Hawks did that again late in the second half to keep the game scoreless.
“I trust them 100%,” Gonzalez said of his teammates. “I know they’re gonna do what I command them to do. And that’s the good part. You know, they listen. We don’t miscommunicate. We’re on the right page. And I think that’s very important.”
Hart was bounced from the Southern Section Open Division playoffs by Loyola nearly two weeks before Tuesday’s game. Bernal said that may have been part of why the Hawks came out of the gates a little slower than the Royals.
“It was almost too long of a break, but it’s give-and-take because we have guys hurting, so that helps them,” Bernal said. “But then the other guys who are good, it’s a lot of time off from a game. But, I mean, we got to deal with what’s in front of us, and they did a good job of doing that.”
Up next in the regional semifinals is a rematch against the Loyola Cubs, who beat Birmingham in a shootout on Tuesday, 3-2, after the two teams played to a 2-2 draw.
In the section semifinals, Loyola beat Hart on aggregate, 2-0, winning each leg of the two-legged affair by 1-0 scorelines.
“I think that motivates us,” Gonzalez said. “It gives us more hunger to get at them and beat them.”
Hart and Loyola are set to kick off their semifinal on Thursday at 5 p.m. at Loyola High School in downtown Los Angeles.
The winner would face either JSerra Catholic, champions of the Southern Section Open Division, or St. Augustine, champions of the San Diego Section Open Division, in Saturday’s SoCal Regional final.
