SOUTHERN SECTION BOYS’ SOCCER PLAYOFFS : 2-A : Orange Continues to Have Its Way in the Postseason

Except for a few tense moments in the first half, the Orange High School boys’ soccer team had things pretty much its own way again Tuesday.

The Panthers did little wrong in their 3-0 victory over La Serna in the the Southern Section 2-A semifinals at La Serna. By the time the match was a little more than half over, the Panthers were well in control.

“I guess the defense could have played a little better,” Orange Coach Ed Carrillo said. “But we got a shutout, so who am I to complain.”

That’s the way it has been for most of the season for the Panthers (20-0-3).

They won the Pacific Coast League title going away and were the No. 1 seeded team entering the playoffs.

Only Los Alamitos offered much resistence, taking Orange to penalty kicks in the first round. But even in that match, the Panthers won, 5-2.

Orange has outscored its opponents, 13-3, in postseason play.

About all that is left for the Panthers is the Southern Section championship, which will be decided on Saturday when they play Laguna Hills, which defeated Cypress, 2-1.

“It doesn’t matter who we play,” Carrillo said. “We’ve gotten this far and we’ll see if we’re good enough on Saturday.”

Orange led, 1-0, at halftime, but put La Serna (15-5) in a hole at the start of the second half.

With a little more than a minute gone in the half, Ricky Heimer lobbed a throw-in directly at La Serna goalie Clayton Barragan. Two Orange players converged on the net, forcing Barragan to punch the ball away instead of catching it.

The ball rolled directly to Orange’s Val Gutierrez and, with Barragan out of position, he rifled a shot into the left side of the net for a 2-0 lead.

‘I was really surprised when I saw the ball come right to me,” Gutierrez said. “But our pressure made the guy punch the ball out. I just let fly with a kick.”

The goal seemed to take the steam out of La Serna, which had applied plenty of pressure in the first half. The Lancers got only two shots in the second half, both on free kicks.

“We knew we had to come out and get a quick one in the second half,” Carrillo said. “They were going to come out fired up. They were very quick and skillful up front. We needed to take control.”

La Serna had its chances early in the match. Forwards Miguel Gaeta and Alfredo Ferradas were able to beat Orange’s defense on several occasions.

Ferradas had the Lancers’ best opportunity when he split the Orange defense and came in alone for a shot. However, goalie Tres Martin came out of the net and dislodged the ball before Ferradas could shoot.

Heimer gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead 15 minutes into the match on a free kick from 25 yards out. It was Heimer’s 17th goal of the season and fifth in the playoffs.

Juan Viveros also scored on a free kick with 10 minutes left.