San Clemente Wins Goalie Battle

Fans of pitchers’ duels would have loved Friday’s goalkeeper battle between Cypress’ Matt Resor and San Clemente’s Kevin Mehrens. If you like runs and goals, San Clemente High’s football field probably would have been a pretty boring place to be Friday afternoon.

Through the first 120 minutes of overtime and regulation play, Resor and Mehrens took turns out-saving each other. Mehrens had seven saves, Resor had five and neither goalkeeper gave up a goal.

Finally, three hours after the game began, Mehrens came out the winner--batting Cypress’ Miguel Flores shot away and giving San Clemente a 4-3 victory on penalty kicks in the first round of the Southern Section Division I boys’ soccer playoffs.

San Clemente scored on its first four penalty kicks. Cypress converted its first three chances, but Nelson Coronado’s shot hit the left post, giving San Clemente’s A.J. Jaramillo a chance to clinch it for the Tritons (15-4-6). But Jaramillo’s shot missed badly and Cypress (18-6-1) had an opportunity to tie.

Flores’ drive appeared as though it would get past Mehrens, who initially leaned to the right. But Mehrens leaned back to the middle of the goal and knocked the ball back with his left hand.

“A lot of times, if I can’t see which way somebody’s going, I’ll just guess,” Mehrens said. “But this time I didn’t guess. He hit it down the middle and I was still there.”

Cypress outshot San Clemente, 14-7, and dominated the two 20-minute overtimes, outshooting San Clemente, 5-2. The Centurions’ best chance of scoring came on a blast from the left side by Coronado. But Mehrens smothered the ball.

San Clemente’s best scoring chance came nine minutes into the second half when Resor misplayed a free kick by Matt Hall and allowed the ball to float through his hands. The ball was within inches of crossing the goal line, but Cypress defender Harold Brundage came flying in to head the ball away.

“We had trouble finishing today,” Mehrens said. “Sometimes the offense picks up the defense. Today, it was the defense that picked up the offense. I thought this would be a lot easier game.”

Mehrens said the Tritons might have been looking ahead to a third game with South League rival Mater Dei in Tuesday’s second round.

“There’s been a lot of talk about it,” he said. “It’s tough not to think about your next game when it’s Mater Dei.”

In other games:

Mater Dei 2, Loara 1--Tony Micheletti scored his 23rd goal of the season to help top-seeded Mater Dei to the first-round victory. Bret Corbin scored the second goal for Mater Dei (20-1-3). Loara finishes 8-11-4.

Woodbridge 4, Sunny Hills 1--Shane Johnson, Yigall Kersenbaum and Junior Velesquez scored goals in the first half, and Saul Wolf scored in the second half on a penalty kick for Woodbridge (14-3-7), which plays Bellflower St. John Bosco on Tuesday.

Bellflower St. John Bosco 1, Huntington Beach 0 (sudden death)--The Braves (19-5-1) won the game on what Huntington Beach Coach Shawn Bruckler called “the worst call I have ever seen”--a “hand” ball, is how he described St. John Bosco’s game-winning goal.

“It was a great game and that was a horrible way to lose it,” Bruckler said.

El Dorado 1, Pasadena 0 (OT)--Darrell Gates scored with a minute left in the second overtime for El Dorado (21-4-4), which will play South Torrance, a 4-3 winner over North Torrance, on Tuesday.