After leading for most of the game, the Los Alamitos High boys soccer team suffered a crushing defeat as Loyola of Los Angeles eliminated the Griffins from the CIF-SS Division I playoffs, with a 2-1 win on Friday at Laurel High School.
After leading for most of the game, the Los Alamitos High boys soccer team suffered a crushing defeat as Loyola of Los Angeles eliminated the Griffins from the CIF-SS Division I playoffs, with a 2-1 win on Friday at Laurel High School.
The Griffins scored first with a goal by Evan Bacani in the second minute of play and the Griffins made that lead stand up until late in the second half. But Loyola, which controlled the tempo for much of the game, finally tied the game in the 67th minute of play. Sean Pleskow got the ball at the top of the goal box and made a move to create some space around a defender. He then fired a low, hard shot past goalie Connor Fatone that tied the game up at 1-1.
But as good as second-seeded Loyola played at times, it was a fluke goal that ultimately did in the Griffins. In the final few minutes before the end of standard time, Loyola’s Timothy Mehl lofted a ball towards the goal from about 35 yards away and along the sideline. No one was there to play it and it took a high bounce towards the goal.
Fatone started to back up to meet the ball, but lost his footing and slipped to the ground. As he scrambled to get back, the ball took a slow high bounce just inside the far post for the game-winner. A few minutes later, the whistle sounded to end the game.
“I just told them to keep their heads high,” Coach Donavan Martinez told his players after the match.
Despite the fluke goal, Martinez did not want to take anything away from the efforts of Loyola.
“It was a very, very good team that we played against. They are very talented and they did a lot of things that were just excellent,” Martinez said.
Still, the Griffins were left to wonder about the opportunity that slipped away. Late in the game, the Griffins had chances of their own to extend or regain the lead. Aron Rudich had a solid shot from about 25 yards out that hit the crossbar and bounced back into play. Ozvaldo Yanez, one of the team’s top offensive players, found some room near the top of the goal box, but his shot was stopped by the Loyola goalie. Fatone was credited with six saves, including a few late in the match that temporarily preserved the Griffins’ lead.