Utah Blitzz forward Chris Watkins is never the fastest player on the soccer field, and he's never in the best shape. He's not the strongest player and doesn't have mesmerizing ball control.
What the 34-year-old BYU men's coach does possess is an unbelievable knack for scoring goals. His tally in the 111th minute of Saturday's overtime game lifted the Blitzz to a 1-0 victory over the San Diego Gauchos in a thrilling Western Conference championship.
"I can't say enough about Chris Watkins," said Blitzz coach Chris Agnello. "This guy is my age."
He may not look the part of scoring phenom, but Watkins can score with the best of them in the D3 Pro League.
Watkins' heroics came just nine minutes before the playoff game would've been decided by a shootout, and with both teams becoming increasingly fatigued. Watkins was one of them. He was brought into the game as a 53rd minute substitute to go all out for 35 minutes. He wasn't counting on additional minutes.
He proved Saturday, particularly in a game with exhausted players, smarts are more important than speed.
As Blitzz midfielder Tyler Turchi raced down the sideline, Watkins knew his teammate would be crossing the ball into the box. The coaching instincts in him took over, so he ran to the spot in the goal box where he has coached countless players to stand to receive crosses. Sure enough, Turchi's centering pass went right to Watkins who volleyed the waist-high ball into the back of the net.
"When you're in that tight, you just want to put it on frame," said Watkins after his golden goal.
Putting shots on target is always easier said than done. Over 100 minutes of soccer proved that Saturday. Throughout the evenly-played match, each team banged a couple of shots off the crossbar and post, while others forced great saves from Utah goal Mike Littman and San Diego goal Daniel Sirota.
Others were just horrendously struck well over the crossbar. With each shot though, the near-capacity crowd at Cottonwood High School grew more and more antsy.
The turn of events in the final five minutes of regulation is where Agnello believes the game was decided.
In the 86th minute, San Diego's Roby Monroe appeared to finally end the stalemate with his header past Littman. As his Gauchos teammates celebrated on the sideline, the goal was waved off because of an offsides.
Two minutes later, Utah's Kevin Noleen also had an apparent goal disallowed because of offsides.
"When those calls were made, they took it a lot harder than we did," said Agnello. "Both mentally and physically they came down."
After that momentum-altering sequence, the Blitzz slowly started to take control, which set up Watkins' strike.
With the win, the defending champion Blitzz advanced to the national semifinals. They'll travel to the Wilmington Hammerheads next Saturday. They'll likely be playing without star midfielder Sterling Wescott, who dislocated his shoulder in the second half.
If the Blitzz prevail, they'll likely host the championship game on Aug. 24.
E-MAIL: jedward@desnews.com