Thousand Oaks Still Unbeaten in League
With his team holding a three-goal lead Wednesday against Royal High, Coach Mark Tietjen of Thousand Oaks began to substitute liberally.
Bad move.
Tietjen’s generosity almost backfired. Royal scored twice before Thousand Oaks, with the help of three key defensive stands, hung on to a 3-2 victory to remain undefeated in Marmonte League play.
“Mark should have known better,” said Coach Kevin Corley of Royal. “A 3-0 lead is nothing. I thought it was a bad move to make the substitutions.”
Less than 20 minutes remained in the game when Tietjen began putting in reserves. Corley capitalized by switching to three forwards, waking up a slumbering offense.
In the 68th minute, Randy Wilson, who moved to forward from sweeper, scored his 15th goal of the season to cut the Lancers lead to 3-1. Robert Snodgrass, who played goalkeeper in the first 60 minutes, added a goal in the 75th minute, one-touching a ball out of the air past goalkeeper Julio Paz. Paz entered the game in the 66th minute.
Royal (12-7-3, 3-2-1) had three golden opportunities to score late in the game by pressing Thousand Oaks (11-2-3, 5-0, but the Lancers hung tough.
“Obviously the substitutions in the last 15 minutes broke up the flow of the game,” said Tietjen. “Maybe we need a four-goal lead before we put subs in.
“It gives us something to work on. We can’t let down like that. They almost pulled out a great tie.”
The Lancers controlled the first 65 minutes, using the speed of their forwards and solid midfield to take a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute. Danny Ermolovich crossed the ball to Chris Jack, who ripped a shot from 15 yards that was blocked and bobbled by Snodgrass, then touched in by midfielder Abraham Estrada.
Less than four minutes into the second half, Ermolovich made it 2-0 when he scored on a low line drive from 30 yards that beat Snodgrass to the near post.
The Lancers capped their scoring when Ermolovich sent a direct kick from 35 yards into the box that was headed in by defender Matt Wolters in the 57th minute.
