CENTURY LEAGUE SOCCER : Santa Ana Valley Overwhelms Villa Park With Late Flurry
Eighth-ranked Villa Park was already playing out of its element on a short field and before an unfriendly crowd. It didn’t need to be playing a man short against fourth-ranked Santa Ana Valley.
But that’s what happened when the Spartans’ Chris Miller was given a red-card ejection early in the second half. The Spartans (9-3-6, 2-1-1) hung tough for the next five minutes, but once Santa Ana Valley’s Margarito Morales scored, the floodgates opened. By the time they were closed the host Falcons had a convincing 3-0 victory Wednesday in a Century League boys’ soccer game.
“It really opened up after that,” Santa Ana Valley Coach Adnan Bayati said. “I knew it was going to come eventually, but I thought it would come sooner.”
The Falcons (11-1-4, 2-1-1) controlled play and had the momentum throughout the first half, but they did not break through until 17 minutes were gone in the second half.
“Once they got the goal, you could see our guys let down,” Villa Park Coach Pat Noyes said. “Our guys played scared.”
Miller wasn’t scared, maybe just a little stupid. After being called for interfering with Valley goalkeeper Alfonzo Limus inside the box, Miller swore at the referee and was given a red card. Miller was not only tossed out of Wednesday’s game, but he also will miss Villa Park’s game on Friday.
“I was stupid enough to yell the ‘F’ word at the ref,” Miller said. “I didn’t think I touched the keeper and then I got kneed in the head after that.”
Morales’ goal was followed by one from Rafael Reynosa on an assist from Cirilo Cabrera 26 minutes into the second half. Adan Navarette’s header off a corner kick from Paulo Gonzalez ended the scoring with seven minutes to go.
“We like long fields where we spread it out and use our speed,” Noyes said. “We weren’t able to do that today. They’re very quick and they stay within five, six, seven yards of each other.
“But it’s only one game and it’s early in the season. We usually don’t play well here anyway. Our kids don’t handle the taunting from the sidelines well. Hopefully, we can forget about this game.”
In other league games:
Foothill 2, Canyon 1--Chris McCauley broke a 1-1 tie by scoring a second-half goal for visiting Foothill (5-5-5, 1-1-2) in the upset over 10th-ranked Canyon. Lars Vreeland’s goal in the first half gave Foothill a 1-0 lead but Sasha Saneff scored two minutes later to tie it, 1-1, for Canyon (12-5-1, 2-2). Lanny Rudner had 10 saves for the Knights.
Orange 1, El Modena 0--Lalo Rodriguez’s goal 20 minutes into the first half won it for visiting Orange (8-5-5, 1-1-2).
