No. 9 Santa Ana Beats No. 2 Woodbridge in Soccer

Second-ranked Woodbridge barely got off the bus before ninth-ranked Santa Ana ambushed the Warriors with two goals. Although the Warriors played sound soccer after a lethargic start, they suffered their first loss of the season, 2-1, Monday in a nonleague boys’ game.

“We beat them here two years ago when they were top ranked,” Woodbridge Coach Jon Szczuka said. “And we’ve taken three straight from them. I guess we should have known they were going to kick us early.”

Santa Ana midfielder Carlos Nava, who scored on a rebound in the first minute, said his team’s fast start was surprising.

“We haven’t scored early all year,” he said. “I think maybe they weren’t ready. I wasn’t expecting to score that first goal, but I did. I was kind of lucky.”

Maybe, but Santa Ana’s luck returned two minutes later when forward Jose Moreira volleyed in a cross from defender Luis Diaz to give the Saints (4-1) a 2-0 lead. Woodbridge (3-1) didn’t do much wrong after that, except not take advantage of its numerous scoring chances.

The Warriors had two shots hit the post in the last 20 minutes of the half before they finally hit the back of the net in the 58th minute. Midfielder Pieter Berger volleyed a cross from Roy Chingarian that was knocked back to him by Santa Ana goalkeeper Danny Morales. But Morales couldn’t stop Berger’s rebound header.

Nava right-footed an easy chance over the net in the 68th minute, setting up a furious finish by Woodbridge. Chingarian slid a point blank volley wide in the 68th minute and Ryo Makimura and Chingarian were off the mark with headers in the final five minutes.

“We woke up and played 77 minutes of awesome soccer,” Szczuka said. “But it was one of those days when we weren’t getting the shots or the calls. They gave some chances to come back. We just didn’t take advantage.”