San Marcos goalkeeper Isaac Urrutia made his presence known early in the Royals’ crosstown boys soccer match-up against Dos Pueblos on Thursday at Warkentin Stadium.
In the first 12 minutes, the junior bolted off his line to break up an Owen Ribbens through ball to Miles Smith and later tipped a corner kick over the bar to keep the Chargers off the scoreboard.
At the final whistle, Urrutia walked off the pitch with his second clean sheet in a row as the Royals won 2-0 and took over sole possession of first place in the Channel League. They’re 4-1-1 (6-3-1 overall) while previous co-leader Rio Mesa fell to 3-2-1 after losing 1-0 against Oxnard. Dos Pueblos fell to 2-4 in league and 6-6-3 overall.
Both San Marcos goals came in the first half: Luis Campos buried a penalty kick after Alex Gallardo was fouled in the box in the 16th minute and Ricky Olivo delivered a superb through ball that Yael Solano slotted in the 21st.
Dos Pueblos created scoring opportunities but it couldn’t put one past Urrutia, who was making his second start in the goal on Thursday. In his debut on Tuesday at Ventura, he stopped a penalty kick to preserve a 1-0 victory.
“Isaac’s done a great job,” raved San Marcos coach Paul McLean. “His distribution has been really good, his placement in the goal has been excellent and he’s making even the hard saves look pretty easy.”
Solano has become a fan.
“He’s doing great so far, he’s great out of the back and he’s very composed,” said the senior forward.
Urrutia was aided by the pressing defense of the Royals’ midfielders and forwards. Their press contributed to both goals.
On the first one, San Marcos pressure on DP’s backline forced a poor clearance. Gallardo took the ball into the 18-yard box and was fouled, leading to the penalty kick.
The second goal was created by the Royals applying heavy pressure in the midfield. Ricky Olivo collected the ball and fed Solano, who beat a diving Kieran Buell.
“It was just a loose ball and my teammate capitalized on it and sent me through. I knew I’d be 1v1 with the goalkeeper. I just did a drop of the shoulder, went left and just toe-poked it,” Solano said of the sequence.
“Their midfield is super strong and I thought our midfield stepped up tonight. We played well,” said McLean of his team’s defensive performance against their rivals. “They do a good job distributing the ball, especially one of their center backs. I thought we did a good job slowing them down a little bit.”
Solano added: “I feel our team is really good at pressing. It’s something we worked on this season. We studied (Dos Pueblos’) shape and how to deal with that diamond (formation), even though we were outnumbered in the middle.”
Dos Pueblos coach Oscar Garcia lauded the defensive play of San Marcos
“They were pressing really intensely. I have to give them credit, they were working really hard,” said Garcia. “I feel like on our side, we came with the idea that we were going to build (out of the back) but certain moments of the game it sped up for us a little bit.”
The Chargers generated several good looks at goal in the second half. In the 71st minute, they executed a nice play off a corner kick, with Alton Hayes heading the ball across to Diego Pacheco for an open header that traveled just wide of the left post. The shots that were on target were saved by Urrutia.
“Most of the game we were playing toe to toe with them,” said Garcia. “I got to give credit to the boys, they never stopped fighting, even with a two-goal deficit at the end of the game.”