Rancho Santiago Rolls Past Irvine Valley

Rancho Santiago, despite having clinched the men’s Orange Empire Conference soccer title earlier this week, didn’t slow up a bit Friday.

The Dons, the defending state champions, got a goal in the first 12 seconds and went on to beat visiting Irvine Valley, 3-1.

Rancho Santiago (15-1-2, 10-0-1 in conference) beat Fullerton, 6-2, Tuesday to clinch its second consecutive title.

But the Dons had plenty of incentive Friday because Irvine Valley had been the only team the Dons had failed to beat in conference. The teams played to a 3-3 tie earlier.

Rancho Santiago took the ball to start the game and quickly worked it down the right side. Hugo Langarica fired a swift pass to Steve Cervantes, who scored past goalkeeper Sean Bartko (four saves) from about eight yards.

Irvine Valley (12-7-3, 5-4-1) had a chance to get back into the game when Rancho Santiago had a player ejected about 20 minutes into the game. But instead of becoming defensive, Rancho Santiago kept up the offensive pressure.

Cervantes got another goal on a header to put his team up, 2-0, with about a minute left in the half.

“Normally,” Rancho Santiago Coach J.P. Frutos said, “very few teams can keep up with us on our big field because of our conditioning. So it doesn’t matter if we have nine or 10.”

The second half was much more physical than the first and each team lost a player to a knee injury.

Rancho Santiago went up, 3-0, when Ferni Castellanos scored on a penalty kick in the 55th minute. The kick was awarded because Cervantes was pulled down inside the box.

Irvine Valley’s goal was scored by Eric Pfeiffer, who kicked it just inside the right post in the 74th minute.