Los Amigos boys’ soccer surpasses Santiago for Garden Grove League lead
The Los Amigos High School boys’ soccer team made sure to put itself at the top of the debate about which squad was the Garden Grove League’s best.
Los Amigos defeated host Santiago 2-0 Friday, earning its fifth straight victory to take sole possession of first place in league.
With just two games remaining in the regular season, the Lobos are now in the driver’s seat in their hunt for a league title.
Omar Martinez and Izaiah Franco scored for Los Amigos (10-3-1, 6-1-1 in the Garden Grove League, 19 points) in a game where the Lobos demonstrated their speed and skill.
Los Amigos coach Jesus Razo relied on his team’s speed in the win.
“We knew we had good players in the midfield, and obviously up top we had some speed,” Razo said. “We wanted to use that knowing that they were quite slow in the first game. Luckily, we took advantage and scored two goals.”
Los Amigos had the better of the play from the opening kick, forcing Santiago (9-4-6, 5-1-2, 17 points) into its side of the field for much of the first half with superior speed and ball-control skills.
That enabled the Lobos to generate a 3-0 shot advantage early.
Los Amigos’ short, quick passes and ability to maintain possession frustrated Santiago, resulting in a steep free kick advantage for the Lobos.
In the 34th minute — 10 yards from midfield — Martinez arched a long free kick that bounced over the mass of players in front of Santiago goalkeeper Dominick Garcia and ricocheted into the net.
Martinez took advantage of Garcia’s positioning.
“I was going to cross it,” Martinez said. “But I saw that the keeper was still moving to the left side, so I tried to hit it. We knew that whoever won this game was going to most likely win league. We just have to take care of business the next two games.”
Santiago did manage two shots in the first half, but Martinez, Christopher Santos and Levy Garcia limited any chances within the 18-yard box, aiding the cause defensively in a relatively easy five-save shutout for Daniel Terrones in goal.
Los Amigos doubled its lead early in the second half.
In the 44th minute, Franco jumped on a loose ball that took a high bounce at the top of the box and rifled it out of the air past Garcia and into the side netting of the Santiago goal.
Franco and his teammates used their observations of the Santiago goalkeeper to their advantage.
“We saw that he was always sitting in his box,” Franco said. “We had to keep shooting on him and just testing him, and we did. We were taking this game personal from the beginning. They took league from us last year, and we have to get it back.”
Santiago’s best opportunity of the game came in the 55th minute, when Leonardo Juarez deflected a corner kick on net and past Terrones, but Martinez blocked the ball from passing the goal line and cleared it out of danger.
Los Amigos finishes its season next week with road matches against La Quinta (4-9, 1-7, three points) and Rancho Alamitos (6-9-1, 5-2-1, 16 points), both teams it has already defeated this season.
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