It Isn’t Pretty, But Buena Reaches Final

Sean Roche, the dour Englishman and longtime Buena High soccer coach, actually smiled Monday, and in full view of his players.

Roche’s rare expression came after Buena defeated Highland, 2-0, in a Royal tournament semifinal and advanced to play Santa Margarita at 5 p.m. today in the championship game.

Buena combined an impenetrable defense with an opportunistic offense to put a twinkle in its coach’s eyes.

“We don’t play pretty at all, and 75% of the time we’re under the gun,” Roche said. “But we can take that kind of pressure, although I hope we don’t have to by the end of the season.”

For now, Buena (7-2-1) hunkers down and counter-attacks. Monday, Buena defeated St. Francis, 1-0, in a quarterfinal before taking a 2-0 halftime lead against Highland.

Buena’s first goal against Highland came in the eighth minute when Brad Workman blasted a low, free kick into the goal from 18 yards. Workman took his kick as Highland players argued amongst themselves and left an opening on the right side of their defensive wall.

“Once they moved, that space was exactly where I wanted to go,” Workman said.

Ten minutes before halftime, Workman got his fifth goal when he stripped Highland sweeper Alfred Bedrosian of the ball and scored on a breakaway.

“[Bedrosian] didn’t know what he wanted to do with the ball and that’s a forward’s dream,” Workman said. “You love to pounce on people like that.”

Coach Danny Young has Highland (8-3-1) playing improved soccer after a dismal campaign two years ago and a fourth-place finish in the Golden League last season. But he was dismayed after watching Buena shut down his team’s attack.

“Take away those two silly mistakes on defense and it would have been a whole different game,” said Young, whose team plays Royal at 3 p.m. today in the third-place game.

“But we played the ball in the air too much and with those big, tall guys they have, we should have played it on the ground.”

Buena’s defense of stopper Ben Smith, sweeper Josh Boys and fullbacks Andy Swanson and Jeremy Bates fronting goalkeeper Lani Kaluna has helped the team outscore its four tournament opponents, 5-0.

“[Roche] has taught our midfield to push up and drop back very quickly,” Workman said. “We work on positional play a lot in practice and it’s paying off.”

In other tournament games:

Santa Margarita 2, Royal 1--The Eagles (7-2-2), two-time defending Southern Section Division III champions, got a goal in each half from George Spencer, his fourth and fifth of the tournament.

Jake Van Sloten scored for Royal in the final minute, but Royal Coach Kevin Corley didn’t feel the game was close.

“On a good day, we’d have a chance, but we were tired and they’re a very good team,” said Corley, whose team had a four-game winning streak broken.

Royal 1, Laguna Hills 0--Justin Semsch headed a throw-in to Van Sloten, who scored with five minutes to play in a quarterfinal, giving the Highlanders their third shutout in four games.

Buena 1, St. Francis 0--Brian Whitley scored on a breakaway off a pass from Boys with six minutes remaining in the first half of a quarterfinal.