SOUTHERN SECTION 2-A SOCCER PLAYOFFS : El Dorado Gets Another Sudden-Death Victory

In the Southern Section playoffs, sudden death continues to mean new life for the El Dorado boys’ soccer team.

Scott Anderson’s goal on a penalty kick four minutes into sudden-death overtime Tuesday afternoon gave El Dorado a 2-1 semifinal victory over host St. Paul. It marked the third sudden-death victory for the Golden Hawks in this year’s playoffs.

El Dorado (16-9-2) will play Bell Gardens, a 3-1 winner over Ganesha, for the 2-A championship at 6 p.m. Saturday at Gahr High School.

“This is incredible,” a jubilant El Dorado Coach Gary Imai said. “This is the first time for the school--either boys or girls--we’ve made the finals. I’ve watched El Dorado soccer since it began 14 years ago, and we’ve finally worked our way up.”

After a scoreless struggle in regulation, St. Paul (16-6-2) took a 1-0 lead four minutes into the first 10-minute overtime period. Matt Martinez connected on a 20-yard free kick into the right side of the goal after his first kick went high and out of bounds.

The referee nullified the first kick, however, because he had not whistled the official restart of play. El Dorado tied the score at 1-1 with two minutes left in the second overtime period on Kurt Jorgensen’s head shot off Anderson’s inbounds pass.

“We’ve never come back in games until the CIF playoffs,” Imai said. “We had never done it in league. Our defense kept us in it. (Blayne) Leitner (18 saves) and our stopper (Matt Haynes) and sweeper (Joe Kalman) kept it up.”