Thousand Oaks Ties Simi Valley for Title

On a field slick with mud from a heavy rain Saturday, Erik Maki took a pass in front of the Simi Valley High goal with 1:10 left in final overtime and shot past goalie Steve Bame to give Thousand Oaks a 1-1 tie--and the co-championship of the Simi Valley Soccer Tournament.

For the effort, forward lineman Maki earned his supper.

Maki had asked Thousand Oaks Coach Jerry Sawitz if he would buy him dinner for a goal just after Simi’s Martin Fraye scored a go-ahead goal with 10:12 left in the game’s second 15-minute overtime,

“I told him sure,” Sawitz said.

“Now he can eat anywhere he wants.”

The tie ended a load of pent-up frustration for Thousand Oaks. The Lancers lost to Simi in a semifinal game at last weekend’s Damien tournament and finished second behind the Pioneers in league last year. The Lancers lost both league meetings with Simi last year.

“We just kept our heads about it,” Frazier said afterwards. “I don’t mind the tie. We didn’t let them win their own tourney--that’s good enough for me.”

Added Maki: “I saw the goalie standing to the right and just shot it in. All I thought about was scoring. Simi is the one team I wanted to beat.”

It wasn’t exactly a win, but a look at the Thousand Oaks fans afterward told an enthusiastic story, anyway.

The game ended in a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation. The field resembled am oil slick by that time. Rain fell most of the day and players had a hard time keeping their footing and passing the ball. A good kick went almost nowhere on the thick mud.

Or as Maki put it: “It was a pain in the butt.”

At least a good slide on one.

Several hours before the game, Simi coach Andy Silva brought a helicopter out from Van Nuys airport to try and dry the field. But minutes after the chopper left, another dose of precipitation fell.

“It was a thing that came to my head while I was up in the press box,” Silva said. “It didn’t sound like a bad idea so I called Van Nuys airport and they said it could be done. It was working--until that spurt of rain came along.”

Royal 5, Oxnard 1--Royal lost a tough match to Thousand Oaks on Friday and took it out on Oxnard with a vengeance in the third-place game. The Highlanders, led by the offensive play of Warren Pitassi, dominated the entire game and had a 1-0 lead at halftime on a goal by Louis Gutierrez.

Royal exploded in the second half, with goals by Gutierrez, Pedro Espinoza, Shawn Christiansen. Even Oxnard defender Manuel Torres got into the act, accidentally putting in a score for Royal as he was attempting to kick away a shot by Gutierrez.

“We played magnificently,” Royal coach John Calpin said. “We talked about what we did Friday and stuck to the same principles. We didn’t do anything differently--except score four more goals.”

Tony Zamarripa scored the single goal for Oxnard.

Agoura 2, Calabasas 0--Egan Forino passed off two assists to Richard DuPlain and Tad Miller to earn the win against Frontier League rival Calabasas in the fifth-place game.

DuPlain scored in the first half, taking the Forino pass through a crowd for the score.

Miller took a Forino pass in the second half and shot it by the hands Calabasas goaltender Dave Salzwedel. The shot didn’t go in at first and Miller had to make a second effort past another defender for the score.

Clark (Las Vegas) 3, Beverly Hills 1--Clark won the ninth-place game on goals by Mike Ogawa, Jim DeAngelo and Zelalem Berhe. Mick Guerin scored the single Beverly Hills goal early in the game.

Westlake 2, Palos Verdes 0--Westlake lost its opening game of the Tournament to Arcadia on Thursday by a goal. Since then, the Warriors have pummeled every team they’ve faced to take the Consolation championship.

The game against Palos Verdes was a good deal tougher than the others.

Brandt Wynalda scored a goal in the first half. The score held until the closing seconds of the game, when Eric Wynalda put another score through the wet hands of Palos Verdes goalkeeper David Roth.