La Cañada boys’ soccer blanked in tournament championship

LA CAÑADA — Heading into the home stretch of the championship match of the La Cañada High Tournament, it appeared as though a penalty-kick session would be in store to determine a champion.

On a chilly Wednesday evening, La Cañada and Valencia Valencia exchanged scoring chances in a physical contest through the first 69 minutes.

Then Valencia received two goals in the final 11 minutes from Dylan Clifford to top La Cañada, 2-0.

“It’s a tough loss and we’d have liked to have been on the other side of things,” said La Cañada Coach Alex Harrison, the reigning All-Area Boys’ Soccer Coach of the Year. “It was pretty much a 50-50 game most of the way and they capitalized on their chances toward the end.

“It’s disappointing not to win your own tournament. We lost mostly because of our midfield play [on the first goal]. we’ll just continue trying to get better.’

La Cañada (3-4-3) advanced to the championship match after registering a 6-0 pool-play victory against Glendale on Tuesday. Valencia (9-1-1) topped Chaffey, 1-0, to reach the title contest.

Playing for the second time against Valencia in less than two weeks, La Cañada, ranked fifth in CIF Southern Section Division VI, had a couple of quality scoring chances in the first half. The best opportunity came on a shot inside the box by Luke Bonham that was stopped by Valencia goalkeeper Daniel Rodriguez in the 38th minute.

Making his first start at the varsity level, La Cañada goalkeeper Ryan Crispi made eight saves. After Crispi turned aside a couple of shots early in the second half, Valencia finally solved the sophomore, who filled in admirably for starter Mikey Selsor (previous engagement).

Clifford got to a loose ball and lofted a shot past Crispi to make it 1-0 in the 69th minute. Clifford than completed the scoring with three seconds left.

“We put a lot into the game, actually the last two games,” La Cañada’s Jack Meeker said. “We went up against a great team tonight and we handled ourselves well.

“We’re trying to turn things around after a slow start, but we definitely played much better against Glendale and then Valencia”

The Spartans, who advanced to the Southern Section semifinals and the Southern California Regional Tournament last season, suffered a 4-1 nonleague road defeat against the Vikings on Dec. 18.