For not having played in a couple of weeks because of the rain, Santa Barbara High’s boys soccer team looked pretty sharp in the first 20 minutes of its key Channel League match against Dos Pueblos on Thursday.
Running on all cylinders, the CIF Division 2 top-ranked Dons got goals from Christian Pardo and Fernando Alvarado in the first 10 minutes before cooling off and settling for a 2-1 victory over the Chargers in a rescheduled afternoon game at Peabody Stadium. (There was a problem with the stadium lights that forced the match to be moved from 5 p.m. to 3:15).
Santa Barbara's Jesse Gonzalez sends a ball forward during the first half of the Dons' 2-1 victory.
“We jumped on them early,” Santa Barbara coach Todd Heil said. “I don’t think we played a good entire 80 minutes, but this is only our second time back on grass in the last two weeks — the first time was yesterday afternoon for 45 minutes. We’ve been indoors, on the beach and we’ve been on turf but that’s our first game in two weeks, so I’m kind of proud of the performance, especially since they’ve had two games.”
The win avenged an earlier 0-0 draw against the Chargers that spoiled Santa Barbara’s perfect record. The Dons are now 20-0-1 and 3-0-1 in Channel League. Dos Pueblos is 9-5-6 and 3-1-2.
PHOTO GALLERY *** CHANNEL LEAGUE STANDINGS
Santa Barbara was dangerous from the start. Midfielder Sanford Spivey took advantage of a slow reacting DP defense and charged toward the goal before being fouled just outside the penalty area in the first minute. Spivey almost scored on the ensuing free kick from Jesse Gonzalez as his powerful header was nicked just over the cross bar by the DP goalkeeper.
Santa Barbara's Sanford Spivey leaps higher than Dos Pueblos' Brandon Tangle(3) and Rodrigo Perez to play a ball back into the Chargers' penalty area
Moments later, the Dons were knocking on the door again. On a corner kick, the ball was delivered across the field, near the top the box, where defender Marco Lopez was received it. He immediately sent the ball toward the far post, where Pardo flicked it in past goalkeeper Eric Katz.
“We wanted to get balls serviced into their box,” Heil said of the third-minute strike. “We thought that would be an advantage for us because of our services and the type of guys we have to get on the end of things.”
Scoring the goal also was a big relief for the Dons.
“It wasn’t so much get it early, it was actually get it,” said Heil. “We squandered some opportunities the last time against them.”
Alvarado was one Don who was determined to make amends for missing some scoring chances in the first meeting with DP. And he came through with a brilliant strike in the 10th minute.
Alvarado picked off a Charger clearing pass and cracked a 22-yard shot into the back of the net.
“I saw the opportunity and just took it and it went in,” Alvarado said. “Since that other game I was thinking I was going to score in this game and we were going to win.”
Said Heil on Alvarado’s goal: “I think more than anyone he wanted to score. Sometimes on an early shot, the keeper’s not ready for it and that’s exactly what happened.”
Santa Barbara kept the pressure on. Twice, George Munoz just missed getting his foot on the end of crossing balls in front of the net.
The Dons did suffer a blow in the first half when Pardo banged heads with DP defender Kyle Schmechel on a 50-50 ball in the 25th minute and left the game.
DP, which was outshot 7-2 in the first half, picked up its intensity late in the half and played much better in the second 40 minutes.
Eduardo Cortez scored the Chargers’ goal in the 50th minute on a counterattack. Midfielder Danny Rowell fed a beautiful through pass to Cortez, who beat Santa Barbara goalkeeper Justo Alvarado one on one.
Dos Pueblos coach Tovi Eliasen said while his team got away with a slow start in its first meeting with Santa Barbara, it didn’t happen this time.
“In both matches it took us awhile to get into it, and in this case it really hurt us,” he said. “In some cases, we kind of get lucky — and they didn’t get the goals in the first game — but they put away their chances well today.”
The Chargers played with more vigor in the second hand and wound up outshooting the Dons 5-4.
“In the second half we gave ourselves a better opportunity to get into the match and got a nice goal to make it close,” Eliasen said. “But all in all, (Santa Barbara) deserved to win on the day. They were the better team and we put ourselves in an early hole and it was going to be very difficult to get out of it.”
Santa Barbara is back in action on Saturday, hosting San Marcos at 2 p.m. at Peabody Stadium. DP is at Buena on Tuesday.
