El Dorado Blanks Brea Olinda

El Dorado hadn’t reached a Southern Section boys’ soccer final in nine years, so maybe the Golden Hawks were overanxious in the first half against Brea Olinda. But in the second half, El Dorado slowed things down, and scored two goals to beat fourth-seeded Brea Olinda, 2-0, Tuesday at Brea Olinda.

“This feels absolutely incredible,” El Dorado Coach Marc Smith said.

Top-seeded El Dorado will meet unseeded Santa Margarita in the final Saturday at a site and time to be determined.

Midfielder Jay Larsen broke the deadlock in the 59th minute with a free kick from the top left-corner of the penalty box and Ignacio Cid got the celebration started with an empty-net goal in extra time, his 27th of the season.

“The first five minutes I thought they were going to cream us,” Cid said. “But we stuck to our game plan and we didn’t panic. We knew if we lose, this is our last game. There’s no practice [Wednesday] and we wanted to practice again.”

The Golden Hawks (27-2-1) were outshot, 7-6, in the first half, but they had eight shots on goal to Brea’s two in the last 40 minutes.

“We came out flat in the first half,” Smith said. “They outplayed us. We were playing the ball in the air. Our strength is not in the air. In the second half, we started getting it on the ground and we were much more deliberate.”

And in being deliberate, El Dorado began taking advantage of its skill and its speed. Midfielder Scott Gwartz set up the first goal by dribbling by several Brea defenders and drawing a foul. The referee blew his whistle with Gwartz inside the box, but the referee didn’t give El Dorado a penalty shot.

Larsen took the controversy out of the call when he drilled a grounder past Brea goalkeeper Mark Becher, who was screened on the play.

“Maybe that was some sort of soccer justice,” Smith said laughing.

Smith wasn’t laughing when Brea (21-6) positioned Becher in front of El Dorado’s goal for a last-ditch attempt to score on a free kick from about 40 yards.

“That was rather scary,” Smith said. “[Becher] is a big kid.”

The free kick was cleared to Cid, who took the ball downfield and left-footed it past a Brea defender, who inexplicably jumped over the ball.

In the other Division III semifinal:

Santa Margarita 3, Dominguez 0--Ryan Curtis scored two goals and Erick Foss recorded his 15th shutout for the Eagles (18-7-4). Mike Meek opened the scoring in the 38th minute, and Curtis added second-half goals in the 55th and 70th minutes.