Santa Barbara got goals from Sanford Spivey and Thomas Crawford, and shut out University City of San Diego 2-0 Wednesday at Mira Mesa High to advance to the CIF Southern California Regional Soccer Championship in Division 2.
The Dons will play Oak Hills for the title on Friday night at 7:30 at Warren High in Downey. Oak Hills upset top-seeded Claremont 1-0 in the other semifinal.
Santa Barbara and Oak Hills (21-3-3) are both CIF-Southern Section runners-up — the Dons in Division 1 and Oak Hills in Division 4.
Santa Barbara (22-6-3) took a 1-0 lead in the 17th minute when Spivey flicked in a 35-yard free kick from Alberto Hernandez.
“It was incredible,” Santa Barbara coach Todd Heil said of scoring first. “We haven’t done that in a while. It took so much pressure off us. We knew that we’re not going overtime. Getting that goal was really important.”
The second goal came in the 74th minute off a beautiful through ball from defender Nico Comati to Crawford, who beat the University City goalkeeper one on one.
Crawford and Kane Nania gave the Dons solid play off the bench for the second straight game, said Heil.
“The bench is coming through when we need them the most,” he said.
Heil said the Dons are tired but fired up to win a championship.
“We’re motivated. We’re running on fumes, but Friday night we’ll have plenty of adrenaline for the regional championship.”
