Trabuco Hills Stays With Saints

Trabuco Hills can’t come close to rivaling Santa Ana’s boys’ soccer tradition, but for one day the Mustangs matched the Saints on the scoreboard. Friday, Trabuco Hills tied fourth-ranked Santa Ana, 2-2, and outshot the visiting Saints, 15-9.

Santa Ana Coach Manny Penaflor said he likes what he sees of the Mustangs (5-3-2).

“They do things that bother a team like us,” Penaflor said. “They have a lot of size and that is tough for us match up against.”

Santa Ana had an especially tough time containing burly defender Scot Thompson, who had his head on a lot of shots around the goal and disrupted Santa Ana’s offensive flow.

“His speed and size were a big factor,” Penaflor said.

Santa Ana (2-2-2) took a 1-0 in the first five minutes when striker Luis Diaz booted a loose ball past goalkeeper Jason Mooneyhan. But Trabuco Hills controlled the rest of the half as it outshot Santa Ana, 10-3, in the first 40 minutes.

Midfielder Peter Padayachee tied the score on a penalty kick in the 24th minute. Thompson created the penalty kick when he was obstructed inside the box by Israel Leon. The Mustangs scored again four minutes later when Mark Jelic knocked in a Kit Hager breakaway shot that was saved by Santa Ana goalkeeper Daniel Morales.

“It’s nice to see us put some passes together against these guys,” Trabuco Hills Coach Brian Fallman said. “It made me pleased to see us finally come out of our offensive funk.”

Penaflor said his team misses two-time all-county sweeper Mario Gonzalez, now a Santa Ana assistant.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who aren’t used to playing defense,” Penaflor said. “We’ve got a brand-new defense except for the keeper and a defender. We’ve got a quiet bunch of kids. We’re trying to get someone to step up.”

Someone did step up offensively for Santa Ana. With 15 minutes left, midfielder Carlos Nava left-footed a deflected free kick past Mooneyhan to tie the score. Thompson had a chance to give the Mustangs a last-minute victory, but his header bounced off the top of the crossbar.

Padayachee was disappointed Trabuco Hills couldn’t pull off the victory.

“We’ve got to capitalize on our opportunities,” he said. “We came out with a lot of intensity and we dominated the first half, but we couldn’t sustain it in the second half. It’s tough to play against them. You can’t dive in on them because they’ve got such quick feet. You have to wait for them to make a mistake.”