No. 3 Oilers Stay Unbeaten
Huntington Beach Coach Kevin Smith has said repeatedly that this season’s Sunset League race will be a war. If that’s true, then Smith’s club emerged from the first battle unscathed.
The Oilers got a hard-earned goal from their leading scorer, Drew McAthy, in the 70th minute to beat visiting Edison Wednesday, 1-0, and remain the county’s only undefeated boys’ soccer team.
The third-ranked Oilers (11-0-1, 1-0) were unranked in the preseason and didn’t enter the rankings until this week. But they won the Marina tournament last week, defeating fourth-ranked Mater Dei in the final. Wednesday they shut down fifth-ranked Edison (8-2-1, 0-1), limiting the Chargers to three shots on goal.
“This is the hardest-working team I’ve coached,” said Smith, who has also coached Cypress and Fountain Valley. “It says a lot about our team to say that we’re still undefeated. But I don’t expect anybody to go through the Sunset League undefeated.”
Edison had been undefeated until last week, but the Chargers have a tie and two losses in their last three games. They played Huntington Beach even for a half, but they were outshot, 5-1, in the second half. A lot of that had to do with the offensive skills of Joel Murphy and McAthy, who was moved up from the midfield during the second half.
“Anywhere you put those guys, they’ll cause problems,” Edison Coach David Smart said. “But the annoying thing was that Kevin kept moving them around. That was good coaching.”
Once Smith moved McAthy to the front, he forced Edison defender Jeff Kunze to make a choice between McAthy and Murphy.
“Kunze is one of the best defenders in the county,” McAthy said. “We tried to keep it away from him.”
McAthy broke loose in the 55th minute and almost scored unassisted, but his left-footed grounder to the far post was deflected off the post by goalie Joey Balbas. McAthy didn’t miss his next shot, a header across the goal off a perfect cross from Murphy, who dug out the ball in the corner against three defenders.
In another Sunset League game:
Fountain Valley 2, Esperanza 1--Jon Armour headed in the winning goal off a corner kick by John Clark. Matt Fluke also scored for Fountain Valley (10-1-1, 1-0). Esperanza is 9-3, 0-1.
In Garden Grove League boys’ soccer:
Garden Grove 9, La Quinta 1--David Pines scored two goals and had two assists for host Garden Grove (2-5, 1-0).
Los Amigos 5, Rancho Alamitos 1--Aban Garcia and Miguel Zapata each scored two goals for Los Amigos (7-4-1, 1-0).
In nonleague games:
Brea Olinda 2, Bellflower St. John Bosco 1--Daniel Clem scored the winning goal in the 65th minute for host Brea Olinda (8-3-2).
No. 4 Mater Dei 3, Aliso Niguel 0--Matt Fennell scored two goals and Ruben Rosales added one for host Mater Dei (19-3-1). Aliso Niguel is 6-3-3.