It’s Late Early for Quartz Hill

It was five minutes before game time Friday and the Thousand Oaks High boys’ soccer team had no one to play.

Quartz Hill was nowhere to be found.

Minutes later a school bus showed up and out came the Rebels, who with five minutes of warm-up time began the game.

The lack of preparation showed as Quartz Hill lost, 1-0, to Thousand Oaks in the opening round of the Royal tournament in Simi Valley.

“We didn’t come out ready to play,” said Coach Andre Matalon of Quartz Hill. “There was a lot of traffic, but we can’t blame [the loss] on the bus.

“Sometimes you come out on top, sometimes you don’t. You’ve got to win with class and lose with class. Thousand Oaks has a good team and they played hard.”

Matalon wasn’t upset that his team lost, he was disappointed by the way it lost.

The Lancers (3-1-3) scored on Daniel Paz’s fluky corner kick in the 21st minute. With defender Vincint Stefano guarding the near post and goalkeeper Eric Torres just behind him, the Rebels appeared to be ready for a short kick, but when Paz’s kick came short the Rebels didn’t react accordingly.

Neither Stefano or Torres moved to the ball, which rolled past them and into the net.

Quartz Hill (6-1) played beautifully through the defense and midfield but had trouble exchanging the ball between its its midfielders and forwards.

The Rebels had virtually no scoring opportunities until the 49th minute, and then they had three chances in under three minutes.

The first came on Paul Carter’s shot that beat goalkeeper Kevin Alarcon Jr. of Thousand Oaks but was saved by defender Ty Pownall.

Not a minute later, Zack Bursley’s point-blank shot from 10 yards was saved by Alarcon, and in the 52nd minute David Martin’s shot had Alarcon beat but defender Kurtis Lindsey kicked the ball out of danger.

“Our forwards aren’t buying into our system,” Matalon said. “They aren’t checking to the ball.

“If you don’t have a team that buys into the system, it’s not going to work.”

The Lancers’ best opportunities came early. Nathan Chu’s shot hit the post in the 29th minute and David Young’s header beat Torres but was kicked out of harm’s way by Kyle Lympany.

“This year we don’t have superstar players,” Coach Mark Tietjen of Thousand Oaks said. “It’s more of a team effort.

“Our program has a winning mentality now. We go into games expecting to win.”