La Cañada, Crescenta Valley boys’ soccer battle to stalemate
LA CRESCENTA — There are plenty of friendships that have been made through the years between many of the Crescenta Valley High and La Cañada boys’ soccer players.
Most have been made as teammates on club teams.
Crescenta Valley and La Cañada met in a nonleague match Wednesday and the friendships were put on hold during a match that ended in a 1-1 tie at Crescenta Valley.
Dallas Kaauwai scored for Crescenta Valley (4-1-2) and William Chant tallied for La Cañada (2-1-1) in a match that featured plenty of physical play.
“A lot of the guys on Crescenta Valley know us and it’s a great rivalry game,” said Chant, who scored in the 54th minute for La Cañada to make it 1-1. “It’s always a big game against CV and they beat us last year, so we wanted to have a better showing today.
“In the first half, we didn’t play well and we knew we had to play better in the second half. We stayed patient and we feel good about getting the tie.”
Chant got inside the box and beat Crescent Valley goalkeeper Kevin Reid with a low shot.
Crescenta Valley, which placed second in the Pacific League last season behind Burroughs, spent most of the first half in La Cañada territory.
Kaauwai scored in the third minute against La Cañada goalkeeper Jorge Landa, who finished with five saves.
“It felt good getting that first goal early,” Kaauwai said. “I think we learned that we just can’t take anything for granted, especially in a rivalry game like this one.
“We have to be ready to put games away early and late. We just need to concentrate a little bit more. This was a good game.”
Crescenta Valley had several good scoring opportunities in the first half. Ryan Sanfilippo lined a shot from about 30 yards off the outside of the left post in the 18th minute. Landa later made two excellent saves in succession against Zander Bakunowski and Chris Sanfilippo in the 30th minute.
Landa’s saves seemed to pick up the Spartans, who won the Rio Hondo League title before advancing to the CIF Southern Section Division VI semifinals and the Southern California Regionals last season.
“He made a couple of big saves to keep us in it and then we get the goal in the second half,” said La Cañada coach Bruno Costa, the reigning All-Area Boys’ Soccer Coach of the Year. “We gave up that goal early and it seemed to take us off our game and he made two great saves.
“At halftime, we talked about having more possession of the ball and we were able to pick it up against a very good team.”
Landa made another big save with about five minutes remaining in the contest when he slid across to stop a shot by Sanfilippo.
“There’s a lot to take from here and it will help if we see them again,” said Falcons coach Grant Clark, whose team could potentially play the Spartans again in the upcoming Crescenta Valley Tournament. “These are the kind of games where you needed to be composed and it was definitely a physical game.
“I’m pretty happy with the way we played today.”
Twitter: @TCNCharlesRich
