Santa Margarita Has No Trouble Making It Two in a Row

Santa Margarita easily won its second consecutive Southern Section Division III boys’ soccer title, with a 3-0 victory over Cathedral City Saturday at Gahr High.

After a shaky first 15 minutes, the top-seeded Eagles (20-3-3) took over and dominated the Lions (23-3-2), winning their third section title in six years.

“I thought we would be the team more composed,” Eagle Coach Curt Bauer said. “They came at us early. We were more nervous than they were.”

Third-seeded Cathedral City took one shot early in the game that went wide and didn’t get another until midway through the second half. Santa Margarita outshot the Lions, 13-1, in the first half and, 11-4, in the second.

The Eagles got their first goal on a penalty kick 20 minutes into the first half when Lion defender Marcos Hernandez pushed a Santa Margarita player in the penalty box. Nick Sparks took the penalty kick and drove a low shot to the right of goalkeeper Francois Vasquez.

Santa Margarita went ahead 2-0 one minute later. Senior midfielder Josh Davis sailed a shot over Vasquez, who made a leaping save. Senior forward Ryan Coiner got the rebound and drilled a shot that Vasquez dove and saved. With Vasquez still on the ground, Davis got the rebound and slammed it into the lower corner of the goal.

The Eagles put the game away in the 53rd minute when senior midfielder Tim Pierce scored his 22nd goal of the season. Pierce got the ball 20 yards out and slammed a shot into the corner of the goal.

The Eagles really had only one scare in the game, midway through the second half, on a mistake by senior goalkeeper Byron Foss. He came out of the goal to the corner of the penalty box to try to take the ball from a Lion player. Foss dived to grab the ball, but it squirted free to Lion forward Jamie Lerma. With a wide open goal, Lerma’s shot went wide.

Bauer, whose team won the Division IV title in 1993, and now back-to-back Division III titles, is under pressure to move his team up a division. El Toro, the third-place finisher in the Sea View League advanced to the Division I final before losing; Santa Margarita was the Sea View League champion.

“In soccer it’s a little difficult. Sometimes the best team in the county might be in Division IV,” Bauer said. “But, it’s definitely something I’m going to look into.”