Prep Soccer : Canyon, Santa Ana Play Scoreless Tie

The Canyon High School boys’ soccer team maintained its 2-year Century League undefeated streak Wednesday with a scoreless tie against Santa Ana at Canyon.

Canyon (13-2-3 overall, 2-0-3 in league play) used an aggressive defense to keep Santa Ana (14-1-4, 4-0-1) from mounting a threat until the final 5 minutes.

Santa Ana, which was ranked second among Southern Section 3-A schools, mounted a relentless attack on the Canyon goal as time ran out. But with only seconds left, goalie Chris Snitko made a diving save of a close-in Santa Ana shot to preserve the tie.

“You better bet I’m happy with getting a tie against the No. 2 team,” said Canyon Coach Walt Bowman, whose team hasn’t lost a league game since January 1987.

Canyon lost its best scoring chance with 4 minutes left in the half when Santa Ana defender Salvador Lopez cut in front of a Canyon attacker in front of the Santa Ana goal and deflected a pass by Andy Birozy out of bounds.

Gus Plasencia, Santa Ana’s goalie in the first half before being moved to the front line in the second, and Hector Ramos, his second-half replacement, each had 5 saves.

Snitko, an All-Century League goalie selection last year as a freshman, had 10 saves for Canyon.