Ugly Eagles reign! Clayton Valley wins first NCS title on stoppage-time screamer from Giovanni Martinez-Negrete

CONCORD — Clayton Valley Charter had been close so many times.

Then Giovanni Martinez-Negrete took matters into his own hands.

After Monte Vista tied the Ugly Eagles in first-half stoppage time at the NCS Open Division championship, a halftime stalemate was anticipated. But Monte Vista didn’t count on Martinez-Negrete sneaking behind the defense, seizing a perfect pass from Yousaf Mahmood and blasting the ball right past the keeper into the back of the net.

That goal held up as the game-winner, as Clayton Valley won the first-ever Open title 2-1 despite a furious second half that featured a late Monte Vista rally and a 15-minute stoppage as Clayton Valley’s Cooper Smith left the field in an ambulance.

After all that, the game restarted briefly, but Monte Vista’s last-ditch efforts in stoppage time didn’t amount to a score. And Clayton Valley, after a number of semifinal heartbreaks under longtime coach Guillermo Jara, had its first section title in school history.

“This is a buildup of the last 14 years,” said Jara, a former soccer star at San Diego who played in MLS. “All the guys that played for me. In the past, we’ve been through so many semifinals. Finally broke through the final.

“And to be able to enjoy this moment with all the guys that are here today from the past, and all the guys here in the present, it’s something that’s just unexplainable. I’ve accomplished a lot in my life, but this is probably one of the things most important accomplishments that I ever accomplished as a coach and as a person and as a team. So for me, the emotions are indescribable.”

Given everything that materialized in stoppage time — Smith’s injury, plus a nonstop onslaught of desperate Monte Vista attempts that spanned an interminably long stretch — it was understandable why Clayton Valley’s players were so emotional.

But underpinning all of that sentiment was a profound expression of joy.

“Everything’s surreal,” Martinez-Negrete said. “I have family coming out, I have friends, I have teammates, ex-teammates, everyone’s coming out to see me. The pressure’s on.

“It’s just joyous. Everything’s happy. And if it’s not happy, it’s happy sad. Everything feels great. I’m moving to the next game now, though. Next game, we have state coming up, and we’re not done.”

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