Gloom Comeback Victory in Season Finale Sheds Light for Next Season
Because of a second half that was all Gloom, the evening turned out to be anything but gloomy for the home crowd.
Bryan Rivas and Peter Torres each scored four goals, with Torres leading a second-half onslaught that propelled the Santa Fe Gloom to an 11-8 futsal victory over Los Yunaites on Saturday night at Santa Fe High School in the Gloom’s season-finale.
The 11 goals were a season high for Santa Fe, which won its second straight match. Unfortunately, the streak could not push the Gloom into the 5-on-5 indoor soccer postseason.
The team finished 4-4-1 for 13 points and third place in the Southwest Division of the National Futsal Premier League. The top two teams play in the final for the Division championship.
“It’s frustrating. You come in and you want to make it to the final, “coach Patrick Schmittdiel Jr. said. “The most we lost by (during the season) was four goals in that first game, and the rest were by only one or two goals. So, it was literally only two or three mistakes from going to the final.
“But it’s also encouraging because it means we’re doing the right thing and finding the right core. We’ll just keep working and have a good offseason. And we hope to start 2-0 instead of 0-2 and digging out of a hole.”
The Gloom’s season-ending winning streak also included a 5-4 victory last weekend over division-leading BRUSA Futsal Club.
Saturday’s match against Los Yunaites (1-6-1) out of Mesa, Ariz., was a microcosm of the Gloom’s season, played in front of a boisterous crowd of about 150.
Trailing 5-4 at halftime, the Gloom burst out quickly in the second 20 minutes. The offense produced four goals in the first seven minutes to take an 8-5 lead. Torres alone scored a hat trick in the first 4:05 to seize momentum for Santa Fe.
“We just came out with a little more intensity (after halftime),” Torres said. “We were just making defensive errors in the first half. We’ve been struggling to play a full game. We’ll do really good, and then we’ll slack off for a few minutes and the opposing team takes advantage.”
“But that intensity (the Gloom came out with during the second half ) and our movement created space. The goals I scored weren’t fantastic (one-on-one) goals; just that good movement and I was able to finish.”
Los Yunaites came back with a pair of goals to cut the lead to 8-7 midway through the second period, but a pair of Rivas goals sandwiched another by Jose Gonzales to give Santa Fe breathing room for the three-goal victory.
The breathing room was necessary because the Gloom lost goalkeeper Jorge Morales to injury after he collided with Los Yunaites' Alexander Romero on Romero's goal that cut the lead to 10-8 with 6:28 left in the match.
Despite controlling possession for most of the first half, the Gloom had a few defensive lapses late that allowed Los Yunaites to rally from a 2-1 deficit to a 5-3 lead. Fortunately for Santa Fe, Los Yunaites committed a penalty when they were over the five-penalty limit in the half just before intermission.
That resulted in a Rivas free-kick goal with just 28.5 seconds left in the half, giving the home team new life heading into the locker room that it used to bolster its strong second half and get a jump start for the 2026-2027 season.
“It was good; we need that momentum for next year to hopefully go to the playoffs,” Andres Monge said. “The focus for the offseason is to continue to grow, keep on playing and go from there.”
ROCKING THE NATIONAL ANTHEM: The Santa Fe High gym was a festive environment in which fans were treated to indoor music as well as a much faster-paced game than a typical soccer match. Saturday night’s game started with an extra bang, thanks to 9-year-old Romeo Valerio’s outstanding rendition of the national anthem.