PROVO — The Utah Blitzz benefited from a few questionable calls Friday night, and they'll play for the USL Division 3 championship as a result.
It took Utah a while to shed the rustiness following its 20-day layoff, but once the Blitzz did, they demonstrated why they were the league's best team in a 2-0 semifinal win over the Stanislaus Cruisers.
"It's unbelievable, it's a dream come true for all of the lads," said Glenn Puckrin. "We were very anxious to play tonight. We wanted to prove a point tonight, that this is a very strong team."
Utah will play the Greenville Lions for the championship next Saturday at Franklin Covey Field at 3 p.m. Greenville beat Boston 2-1 in overtime in the other semifinal.
The loss ended an admirable playoff run by Stanislaus, which finished third in the Western Conference during the regular season.
The Cruisers can't help but feel it was a tainted loss.
All throughout the first half, Stanislaus was playing right with the Blitzz, sometimes even outplaying them. In fact, the best scoring chance of the first half came Stanislaus' Joseph Stuart hit the crossbar on a header.
It was just before halftime when the drama began to unfold.
In the 43rd minute, Utah's B.J. McNicol was taken down in the box, which immediately produced a whistle from the ref.
Utah's Adolfo Ovalle easily knocked home the penalty kick to put Utah up 1-0.
"It was very questionable," said Agnello. When you consider Utah lost to Stanislaus 3-2 earlier this year on a questionable, last-minute penalty, he doesn't feel guilty at all about the goal. "As luck would have it, or soccer karma, we end up with a similar call in a similar position."
Shortly after falling behind, the Cruisers' Pat Iriz tapped in what probably should have been the equalizer. The linesman called offside, which added to Pires' frustration as the ball seemed to be played back to Iriz.
"It should've been a goal," said Agnello, acknowledging that the ref botched the call. "It's a totally different game when you're losing 1-0, and when you're facing good teams, it's a killer."
Utah was clearly the recipient of a few favorable calls, but whether that's fair or not, home teams traditionally get those close calls.
Last year Utah lost in the semifinals at Charlotte, and Agnello vowed to not let that happen again.
"We were in position last year, we felt in a different environment we could've come out with a different result," said Agnello. "That's the whole advantage of having home-field advantage."
Glenn Puckrin and Fadi Afash went on to add second-half goals, but they came late when Stanislaus was desperately pushing forward for the tying goal.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com