Santa Barbara High made it three straight titles at the 18-team Cats and Hounds boys soccer tournament on Saturday with a pair of shutout victories.
The Dons (5-0) had a bye into the Gold Division semifinals, where they defeated Granite Hills 4-0 while out-shooting the Cougars 22-3. An Alex Santana corner kick was put away on a header by Justin Jimenez in the 19th minute. Santana tallied his second assist just nine minutes later, this time feeding George Muñoz with a cross.
Leading-scorer Jesse Gonzalez had a highlight-reel goal in the 35th minute.
“He beat one player and then just sent a left-footed cannon into the upper-V from 25 yards out. It was a great shot,” said coach Todd Heil.
Jimenez tallied the final goal in the 50th minute.
The championship match was against a feisty Palmdale team, and Santa Barbara prevailed 2-0. Luis Santana beat a defender and made it into the box in the eighth minute before feeding Christian Pardo for the first goal. In the 49th minute, Gonzalez sent a corner kick to Edgar Ruiz, who buried it.
Gonzalez had six goals and two assists over four tournament games.
“They were good. We played them the last two years in this tournament and they had a lot of seniors, so this was a good little test for us. We did a good job of holding them to just one shot,” said Heil.
As for a third straight title, Heil was very pleased. However, he was reluctant to discuss any specific expectations for the group so early in the season.
“We’re really gonna take this one game at a time. We had a great year last year and we’re off to a good start, but we’re just focused on Moorpark on Tuesday,” he said.
