Ben Callon let the lack of a call and his temper get the best of him Saturday night, and his Nevada Wonder teammates paid the price.
Callon was pushed hard along the right sideline, and when the referee failed to make a call, Callon left the air with both feet with an ill-advised tackle attempt. The result was his second red card in a month.
Nevada was forced to play the final 27 minutes of regulation and the two 10-minute overtime periods without him, and dropped a 2-0 nonconference overtime decision to the Cascade Surge at Carson High.
The first goal by Seth Burke came on a header about a minute into injury time in the first 10-minute overtime period. In the eighth minute of the second overtime, Carlos Calderson beat new goalie Dan Benton with a hard shot in the right corner.
The loss dropped the Wonders, who have been hit with injuries all season, to 5-10 this year. The Wonders played without Lance Pimentel, Don Perez, Marvin Sorto and Wayne Maden. All except Perez, who has residency issues, are injured.
It's been a year player-coach Paul Aigbogun would love to forget. He'd love to forget about Callon's play, but can't. He knows what a disastrous effect it had on the squad.
"Maybe it was (an over-aggressive play)," Aigbogun said. "It was a hard foul. You can't hide that. The referee had lost control of the game long before that. It was a red card, but if he calls the stuff (earlier), it doesn't get to that.
"I can't fault our effort. I thought we defended well and worked hard. If we had stayed at 11 (players) I think we would have gone on to win the game. I figured they would score a goal."
Once Callon was ejected, the Wonders went into a defensive shell. If there wasn't a breakaway possibility, the Wonders' defense sank back and tried to keep Cascade from scoring.
Cascade, which was outshot 11-6 in the first half, ended up out-shooting Nevada 22-16.
"That (becoming defensive minded) tends to happen when you lose a player," said Cascade coach Martin Rennie, who watched his team improve to 12-2-1. "It was important that we kept possession of the ball and use the extra man."
Nevada only got one good shot in the overtime period, and that came early in the second OT when Andrew Almquist missed wide left when the Surge failed to clear a corner kick.
After the Surge's first goal, Benton was forced to stop back-to-back shots from point-blank range in the sixth minute of the second OT. Calderson followed two minutes later with a goal.
Aigbogun lamented the missed opportunities in the first half.
"The first half we should have done better," the Nevada coach said. "Two or three of those shots should have gone (in). It would have changed the game a lot."
The loss ruined the debut of Benton, who was making his debut in goal for Nevada. Aigbogun expects to have Benton for the remainder of the season.
