SOUTHERN SECTION SOCCER PLAYOFFS : Boys’ Roundup : Santa Ana’s Opportunity Turns Into a 1-0 Victory

El Toro High School’s defensive lapse and Santa Ana’s stamina were the keys in the Saints’ 1-0 victory Tuesday in a second-round Southern Section 3-A boys’ soccer match at Santa Ana Stadium.

The only goal came about 9 minutes into the second half after the ball bounced off an El Toro defender about 20 yards in front of the El Toro goal.

“They couldn’t quite clear it and Marco (Silva) was able to get to it and put it in,” Santa Ana Coach Ernie Salgado said.

Silva, a halfback, got the ball and nailed a left-footed drive past goalie Kevin Rowe for his 10th goal of the season.

“We had a poor clearance,” El Toro Coach Carlos Arce said. “You just can’t make a mistake against the good teams. If you do, you’re pulling the ball out of the back of the net.”

Despite the loss, Arce was pleased that the Chargers (12-7-3) were competitive with the third-seeded Saints (19-1-6).

“Our team fought to the end, that means a lot, that’s big time, “ Arce said. “The last 10 minutes of the game they were there. The adrenaline was there.”

Santa Ana weathered a furious assault by El Toro in the waning minutes. The Chargers, who had only three shots on goals to Santa Ana’s 11 in the first half, managed 11 second-half shots, six in the last 10 minutes.

“There were some close calls in there,” Salgado said. “In the playoffs when you get down to the last 10 minutes just about any team will start pushing people up because it’s do or die.”

The Saints’ superior conditioning helped them survive the barrage, Salgado said.

El Toro left wing Doug Barry continually threatened to score. One of his best shots on goal came in the first half. His header off a penalty kick 20 yards out bounced off the top of the Saints’ goal. He had two more headers late in the game. One went wide right, and the other was picked off.

Santa Ana was slightly out of sync defensively in the first half because of the absence of starting stopper Jose Navarrete, who did not attend the game because of “personal problems,” Salgado said.

Santa Ana had several scoring opportunities in the first half but El Toro goalie Kevin Rowe, who had 10 saves, played solid defense.

“I was impressed with their goalie,” Salgado said. “He was fast and he was good. There was one play where Gus (Placensia) just fired it into the goal one-on-one and he stopped it.”

Santa Ana goalie Hector Ramos had seven saves as the Saints collected their 13th shutout of the season.

The Saints will play Riverside Poly, a 6-1 winner over Gahr, in the quarterfinals Friday.

Salgado was pleased with his team’s performance but said it would take a better effort to win the championship.

“If we’re really to win (Southern Section), we have to start from the very beginning and control the whole game, not just part of the game,” he said.

In another 3-A match:

Mission Viejo 4, St. John Bosco 0--Midfielder Joe Max-Moore scored three goals to lead visiting Mission Viejo (22-1-3), the top-seeded team in the 4-A Division. Max-Moore leads Mission Viejo with 22 goals this season. Doug Roverson scored the other goal for Mission Viejo, the South Coast League champions.