For the first 20 minutes, the young San Marcos boys soccer team went toe to toe with powerhouse Santa Barbara High. The Royals scored first and were feeling good about the way they were playing against the more experienced Dons.
Then Santa Barbara stepped up its game and ran all over San Marcos for a 4-1 victory in the Channel League opener on a chilly Thursday night at Warkentin Stadium.
[Scroll down for video highlights of the game]
Abraham Sierra scored two goals and Owen Lambe and Jorge Garcia Torres added one a piece as the Dons improved to 14-4-1 and 1-0 in league.
Andy Mandrell gave San Marcos (2-7-3, 0-1) a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute before Santa Barbara took over the game.
“They seemed a lot more into it than we were,” Santa Barbara coach Todd Heil said of San Marcos’ inspired play in the early going. “I’m not sure if it was the two days we couldn’t get on the field and train or we were a little too excited, but we definitely did not start the game cohesively as we normally do. Props to them, but to come back and score four unanswered, I’m impressed with that. We’d like a shutout but I’ll take coming back and scoring four unanswered.”
Sierra got the Dons rolling with his first goal in the 18th minute. Sierra had earlier rolled one wide of the post after a beautiful set up by Brandon Sanchez.
“I didn’t play as well because I didn’t practice for two days,” Sierra said. “What coach told me was I got it all in my head, so I have to put in the work. I took the chance, I shot and scored.”
San Marcos goalkeeper Bryce Tomlinson made back-to-back stops against Sanchez to keep the score 1-1 at halftime.
“I thought we were playing well,” said first-year San Marcos coach Daniel Torres, who was going against his high school coach. “I thought we deserved that goal. We were doing just fine. The whole season we play well for periods of time and then we let our guard down and that’s when the goals come for the opponent.”
Sophomore midfielder Owen Lambe gave Santa Barbara the lead after a nice bit of teamwork with Adrian Gamez.
“I passed to Adrian, the other center attacking mid, and he played a give-and-go with me, and I hit a left-footed shot to the far post,” said Lambe.
“That’s kind of a classic goal from Santa Barbara High School, Heil said. “A little build up, a little connecting, a little wall pass a little 2v1, with Adrian getting (Lambe) in — that’s signature Santa Barbara High Soccer.”
The goal was the fifth of the season for Lambe.
Sierra struck again to make it 3-1. He stole the ball in the midfield, raced past a defender and chipped the ball over Tomlinson for his 10 goal of the season.
“I knew I was going to chip him, I’m pretty much the king of chips,” said Sierra.
Santa Barbara’s defensive pressure proved to be the Royals’ undoing in the second half.
“The second half we came out with a lot more pressure and they had a much harder time clearing the ball, a much harder time getting out of their half of the field. And those two goals, the turnover goals, resulted from that pressure,” said Heil
Torres said his team showed its inexperience of playing in a crosstown game and a Channel League varsity game.
“It’s a rivalry game, obviously, and 80-85 percent of my team have never been here. This is their first league game. For a lot of them, it was a shocker. The first 20 minutes were fine, and the second half, when things get hard, that’s when Santa Barbara can win these games. Todd is a great coach and he knows how to get his guys ready for these games. And that’s something we’re trying to work on here at San Marcos.”
Garcia Torres completed the scoring for Santa Barbara with a nice individual effort. He beat a defender before ripping a shot into the upper right corner of the goal.
— Noozhawk sports editor Barry Punzal can be reached at bpunzal@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
Dons beat Royals in league opener from Barry Punzal on Vimeo.