Boys’ soccer: Tuesday’s winners and losers

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Jaime,

Were there any upsets on Tuesday? Yup.

What about teams, did anyone surprise you? Yup.

Are you going to say something other than just ‘yup’? Ahh ...Yup.

Here is a quick rundown of the winners and losers from Tuesday’s games.

Winners

* Mater Dei. The Monarchs beat Palmdale, 5-0, to advance to the quarterfinals. I saw Mater Dei in person last week when they beat Montebello Schurr, 3-2. The Monarchs (18-7-2) missed last year’s playoffs and looked like a team that did not have much playoff experience in that game. But they were tremendous on Tuesday. The Monarchs left no doubt they are a team to be reckon with in the Division I playoffs. Mater Dei will face Long Beach Cabrillo on Thursday.

* Hat trick boys Taylor Miller of Mater Dei and Nana Akyen and Fifi Baiden of Dunn. Miller, a senior, now has five goals in this year’s playoffs, three on Tuesday, during Mater Dei’s 5-0 win against Palmdale, and two on Friday, during the Monarchs 3-2 win against Montebello Schurr. Meanwhile, Akyen and Baiden combined for six of the goals scored during Dunn’s 9-0 win against Village Christian. The duo, which has scored eight of the team’s 14 playoff goals, also had three assists in the game.

* Bell. The Eagles beat Locke, 2-0, in the second round of the City Section playoff and the No. 4 seed Bell (19-3-3) will now host defending City champ Canoga Park on Thursday. Alejandro Covarrubias and Daniel Castro provided the scoring.

* Wilmington Banning. The Pilots (12-2-1), seeded No. 1 in the City Section, survived a scare from No. 16 Monroe to advance to quarterfinals with a 2-1 victory. Next up, No. 9 San Pedro, who the Pilots have already played twice this season, walking away with a win and a tie.

* Quartz Hill. The Rebels might be for real after all. Quartz Hill (23-2-2) has scored 108 goals this season, including five in two playoff games, but beating Aliso Niguel (18-7-2), 3-0, on Tuesday. This is, without a doubt, the team’s biggest win of the season. Up next for the Rebels in the quarterfinals is the top-seed team in Division I, Santa Margarita. This is an unbelievable matchup. The match will be a classic battle of a great offense vs. great defense. Who wins?

Losers

* Mission League. The Mission League began the playoffs with four teams, but none survived past Round 2.

* Servite. Three weeks ago the Friars (22-4-3) were ranked No. 1 in the Division I coaches’ poll, now they are not even in the playoffs after losing to San Clemete, 2-1, in the second round. The loss has to be considered a disappointment and an upset. Given Servite’s talent, their season ended far too early. San Clemente will now play Newbury Park, which upset St. Francis, 2-0, in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

* Garey. The Vikings were supposed to play at home, but because they violated the game-ball rule (in which the school used the wrong brand of ball) they had to go on the road. The result, a 1-0 loss to Riverside Poly on a goal by Hector Bransford.

Tell me what you think. What matchup are you most looking forward to next? Who’s been the best player so far? What team did you expect to go further?

-- Jaime Cardenas