The Dos Pueblos Chargers bowed out from the CIF Division 1 soccer playoffs, losing a hard-fought 1-0 decision against Loyola in a second-round game Wednesday at Scott O’Leary Stadium.
Andre Brown scored the lone goal in the first half and the Cubs made it stand up against constant DP pressure.
Dos Pueblos had a chance to even the score at the tail end of the game, as Kyle Schmechel’s header off the set piece beat keeper Cole Moffat. But the ball was miraculously cleared off the goal line by Loyola’s senior captain Justin Jenkins.
“Playoff games are very intense. We work on that consistently in practice, defending balls in the box,” said Loyola’s coach Chris Walters. “They did a great job of it. We didn’t want to have to save that one off the line.”
For DP coach Tovi Eliasen, it was a tough defeat, but he was proud at how his team worked hard to the final whistle.
“Our effort was fantastic, we had some great chances, and it seemed like a really even game in the end,” he said. “Loyola is a very good team, give them a lot of credit. It was going to take a great team to beat us.”
“It’s a 1-0 loss, it happens, we’ve done it to other teams,” said DP’s senior captain Chris Castillo. “It was just not our day to win it. We played good, they played better. I don’t think they had better plays, but they have the win and that’s what matters.”
The Chargers created their fair share of chances by keeping their intensity on and off the ball. But they couldn’t get one past Loyola’s strong defense.
“About five minutes before their goal, I thought we really had the better run of play,” said Eliasen. “I thought we really looked good.”
After Brown’s goal, Loyola shifted to a possession-oriented offense in order to slow the tempo down and limit DP’s offensive chances.
“We told them at half-time to try to maintain possession and try to take the wind out of their sails a little bit,” said Walters. “They’re a very high pressure team, and they’re a talented team when they are on the ball.”
The Chargers made a final push in the last 15 minutes by taking off a defender and adding a forward, but they still couldn’t find any holes in Loyola’s back line.
“We were looking for it to be a little bit more risk-reward,” said Eliasen. “On our field, you never know where the ball is going to bounce. We wanted to give ourselves a little more opportunity, and if they didn’t have a guy on the post , we wouldn’t be having this conversation, but that’s how it went today.”
