Agoura Beats Oak Park in Neighborly Fashion

Members of the Agoura and Oak Park high soccer teams clambered aboard their buses Saturday morning for a 45-mile ride to Gahr High in Cerritos to decide which was the best school in Southern Section 1-A boys soccer.

For the record, one team rode 45 miles and the other rode 46.5.

The kicker here is that both schools--although they are in different leagues--are located in the city of Agoura Hills. They could have jumped onto their skateboards and coasted down the sidewalk to decide this one.

“About a mile-and-a-half apart,” Agoura Coach Marc Berke said.

But Agoura, the top-seeded team, found that Oak Park (14-7-1)--which entered the playoffs as an at-large team after a fourth-place finish in the Tri-Valley League-- at-large, isn’t all that far removed in ability.

Senior forward Robbie Sahm scored from 12 yards out at the 10-minute mark of the first half as Agoura, the defending champion, held off Oak Park, 1-0.

Agoura goalkeeper Mitch Meyers knows a little about shutouts: He had 14 this season for the Chargers (18-1-4), including four straight in the playoffs.

“Hey, this team plays it tough right down to the end,” Oak Park Coach Larry Jaffe said. “We stayed right with them, and Agoura is a team that went through the playoffs like a hot knife through butter.”

Had Oak Park goalkeeper David Stephens melted from the pressure, nobody would have blamed him. Agoura outshot Oak Park, 26-10, and Stephens, a 6-3 junior, made 25 saves.

For Meyers, the first 75 minutes was just a sunny Saturday in the park. The senior keeper recorded 10 saves, but three came in the last five minutes as Oak Park flooded the offensive end in a desperate attempt to tie the score.

This year’s trip to the playoffs was Berke’s third in four seasons at Agoura. His team allowed just 14 goals the entire season. In its four playoff wins, Agoura outscored opponents, 17-0.

“Meyers is a good goalkeeper,” Berke said, “But our defense is really the key. It’s so strong back there that we just don’t allow that many shots at him.

“But Oak Park is a gutsy club, and they sure deserved to be here.”

This year, however, Agoura was again the tougher kid on the block.