St. Francis soccer stifled by Loyola
LA CAÑADA — When it faced rival Loyola High on Monday, the St. Francis High boys’ soccer team was trying to overcome some recent offensive struggles.
In their previous two Mission League matches, the Golden Knights failed to tally a goal.
But breaking that string looked to be a difficult task for the Golden Knights, as the Cubs came into the contest having surrendered just two goals in five league matches and had yet to lose a league match.
The Golden Knights had few offensive chances and the Loyola defense kept the hosts off the board for a third consecutive match in a 5-0 loss at St. Francis.
“I think the story today was that we played well in long stretches, but we make a mistake and they score a goal. That’s the kind of team Loyola is,” said St. Francis coach Glen Appels, who is in his 30th season. “In that first half, we just spent a lot of time defending.
“The good thing for is that I thought we played better in the second half; we had some good passes and we got some chances.”
The league-leading Cubs (14-3-5, 5-0-1 in league), who are ranked No 3 in CIF Southern Section Division I, clamped down on St. Francis (9-7-1, 3-3) for most of the contest, affording the Golden Knights precious few scoring chances.
“We’re doing better defending. We emphasize defense a lot,” Loyola coach Chris Walker said. “But we need to get better. We gave away a couple of balls in the back that gave St. Francis a couple opportunities. And if they score on one of those opportunities, it’s 2-1 and it’s a different game.”
Loyola put St. Francis in catch-up mode early. In the eighth minute, Cub Nicholas Mancilla got the ball on the left side, moved around a Golden Knights defender and scored to make it 1-0.
Loyola added to its lead in the 18th minute when Tomas Griego scored on an assist from Aidan Cuevas.
The Golden Knights were kept in the game during the first 20 minutes of the second half with the fine play of goalkeeper Michael Bazarevitsch (10 saves), who made some great saves to keep it a two-goal contest.
“Michael was fantastic with how he played for us and he stopped some very good shots,” Appels said. “I thought our defense was pretty well-organized, we just need to do better at defending some of the set pieces.”
Henry Smith-Hastie gave Loyola a 3-0 lead with a goal in the 66th minute. The Cubs scored the final two goals in the last two minutes, one on a penalty kick.
The Golden Knights’ best scoring chance came in the 46th minute. Ian Odermatt got control of the ball and delivered a blast from 22 yards out, but Loyola goalkeeper Nicholas Barr-Mira was just able to bat it away.
Twitter: @jefftsports
