Aliso Niguel Boys Earn Share of Soccer Title

Aliso Niguel captured a share of its first Sea View League boys’ soccer championship by defeating Newport Harbor, 2-0, Friday at Aliso Niguel.

The Wolverines (8-5-6, 3-1-4) will share the title with Woodbridge (17-4-4, 4-2-2), which defeated Irvine, 1-0.

Newport Harbor (4-6-6, 2-3-3) came into the game with a chance to tie for the league title, but left in a third-place tie with Irvine. Because the Vaqueros (1-2-5 in league) held the tiebreaker over the Sailors, Newport Harbor is out of the Southern Section playoff picture.

After pressuring keeper Duke Burchell with nine first-half shots, Aliso Niguel scored in the 57th minute on Brock Schermerhorn’s goal off a free kick.

Positioning himself in front of the net, Matt Davey rebounded a ball that bounced off a Newport Harbor defender and sent it to Schermerhorn, who knocked it past a diving Burchell.

Referees negated a second Schermerhorn score 10 minutes later, but the Wolverines added an insurance goal in the 74th minute when Davey scored on a header, assisted by Nick Bill.

Aliso Niguel finished with 14 shots on goal, forcing Burchell to make 12 saves.

“Both goals came off free kicks--things we practiced all week,” Wolverine Coach Ken Ezratty said. “Actually, I was happy with all our set plays today. We ran them right and converted two when we needed them.”

Newport Harbor managed only four shots on goal and had few scoring opportunities.

Early in the second half, Adam Kerns took a return pass from Jose Serpas but was tied up in the box, and his shot attempt dribbled to keeper Marty Sigler.

Leading scorer Trey Meek was tackled just outside the box, but then his free kick slammed into a Wolverine defender and caromed away.

The Sailors had one more chance to score, but Tyler Schatzlein’s header bounded wide left.