SOCCER ROUNDUP : Santa Ana Valley’s Second Half Finishes Off Estancia
Santa Ana Valley, the fifth-ranked team in Orange County, broke open a close game at halftime with four second-half goals to defeat host Estancia, 6-1, in a nonleague boys’ soccer game Monday.
Santa Ana Valley’s Francisco Islas, who scored twice, scored the game’s first goal before Greg Dill of Estancia tied it 15 minutes into the first half.
Carlos Vergara, who also had three assists, scored in the first half to give the Falcons a 2-1 halftime lead.
“We can play with anyone,” Estancia Coach David McKiernan said. “But we had some breakdowns defensively in the second half, and Santa Ana Valley took advantage of them.”
Tony Arredondo scored twice, and Pablo Gonzalez and Islas each added one goal in the second half for Santa Ana Valley (11-2-1).
Last week, Estancia tied Santa Margarita, the county’s top-ranked team, 2-2 in the first round of the Orange tournament. But the four tournament games in three days took its toll on the Eagles (5-6-2).
“We probably needed a practice today, more than another game,” McKiernan said. “After all those games in the tournament, I think we’re a little tired right now.”
In other nonleague games:
Mater Dei 3, Newport Harbor 0--John Gerdis scored twice for host Mater Dei in the first 10 minutes of play. Kevin Quigley and Robert Andrade each had an assist, and Brandon Smallwood scored an unassisted first-half goal for the Monarchs (7-1-5).
Newport Harbor goalkeeper Steve Kleha had three saves and teammate Mike Freeman had four. Peter Van de Ven and Paul Gerdis combined for six saves and the shutout for Mater Dei.
San Clemente 2, Laguna Hills 1--Fifteen minutes into the second half, Ryan Boyajian scored to tie the score, 1-1, for host Laguna Hills. But three minutes later, Miklos Rosas scored off Jose Flores’ assist to clinch the victory for San Clemente (8-2-2).
Rosas assisted on Rob Oveson’s goal with nine minutes remaining in the first half to give San Clemente a 1-0 halftime lead. Goalie Mario Garcia had six saves for San Clemente, and Mike Messinger had five for Laguna Hills (4-5-5).