Bell Wins Wild-Card Match Against North Hollywood

Talk about defying the odds.

The boys’ soccer wild-card playoff between North Hollywood and Bell highs was finally played Tuesday, surviving a rain postponement, field flooding, talk of having a coin flip to determine the winner, transportation obstacles, a school holiday and one referee who failed to show up for the match.

Bell won, 4-1, scoring all their goals in the second half at North Hollywood. The win allowed Bell (7-2-2) into the 16-team City Section playoffs as the 16th-seeded team. The Eagles play top-seeded Belmont today.

The match, postponed from Friday because of heavy rains last week, was played on North Hollywood’s field, still wet from last week’s flooding. Unsure of their footing or maybe just stunned that the match was finally under way, the teams played a tentative, scoreless first half.

But Bell junior midfielder Osbaldo Williams scored in the sixth minute of the second half on a low shot into the left corner of the goal. One minute later, Williams drew a foul in the penalty box and nailed the penalty kick for a 2-0 Bell lead.

“We were asleep in the first half,” Eagle Coach William Albano said. “We were flat. There was no communication, no thinking. I put in (Jose Leal) at center half in the second half because he’s more energetic and enthusiastic, and he made a couple of good passes that led to the first goal.”

Bell continued to hammer shots at North Hollywood goalkeeper Locke Eldridge, who made 13 saves.

Filiberto Madrigal scored on a free ball in the 23rd minute and a hard shot by Eagle sophomore Jorge Iberdi five minutes later found back of the net to give Bell a 4-0 lead.

Hector Claros of North Hollywood (9-4-1) scored on a penalty kick in the 29th minute for the final margin.

Eagle goalie Marco Landeros, who grew increasingly confident as Bell’s lead grew, had eight saves.

“They’ve got some good talent there,” North Hollywood assistant George Tataje said.

North Hollywood played without three starters: two, including leading scorer Carlos Cortez, were visiting El Salvador, and Victor Martinez broke his foot last week in practice. Their absence forced North Hollywood coaches to pull four players out of afternoon intersession classes at Van Nuys High so the team could play.

But it didn’t matter, because the Huskies’ gambling, three-fullback defense broke down in the second half.

“Had there been a second referee, we might have done a much better job with our defense,” Tataje said. “We couldn’t work our offsides trap (with only one ref).”

All things considered, though, that was probably the least of the obstacles the teams had to overcome.