San Marcos and Dos Pueblos faced off and battled to a 0-0 draw in a boys soccer rivalry matchup on Saturday at Warkentin Stadium.
The hard-fought draw mirrored the Channel League picture early in the season, with all teams, including the Royals (2-2-3, 1-1-2) and Chargers (3-2-4, 1-2-1) bunched together and competitive in most matchups.
“In this year’s Channel League, any team can beat any other team,” San Marcos coach Paul McLean said. “There’s a lot of parody, which is good for our current position.
“I don’t think anyone is going to run straight through the league so we have the opportunity to find our way back to where we want to be.”
The most exciting action of the match took place just seven minutes after the first whistle when San Marcos earned a penalty kick after a Dos Pueblos hand ball in the box.
Royals forward Javier Elias stepped up to take the shot against Charger goalkeeper Isaac Jimenez.
Elias fired a shot to the bottom corner of the goal and Jimenez guessed correctly, blocking the initial shot. Elias then followed up the ricochet and shot again but once again Jimenez sent the ball back.
San Marcos’ Favian Rosales got one more shot off but the Dos Pueblos defenders blocked it away to preserve the scoreless tie.
“I was just trying to guess where he was going and luckily I blocked it and on the second rebound I blocked it again and my defense was there to clear it out,” Jimenez said. “I’m very happy with my team, we fought very hard today.”
That save sparked a Charger offense that got off to a bit of a slow start, as they were the aggressor for the end of the first half. However, they couldn’t find the back of the net.
“Offensively, down the wings in the first half, I thought we were the most dynamic getting around there, we just couldn’t make that final pass or that final play,” Dos Pueblos coach Matt York said. “We were kicking it too far out and settling for shots outside of the box.”
Coming out of halftime, both teams found chances to break free and secure the go-ahead goal but time and time again the back lines turned away the attacks.
“DP made it hard for us to play the way we wanted to but we still needed to be better in our offensive third with those last balls,” McLean said. “But, we did a good job (defensively), we stayed organized in the back.
“We had a bunch of guys play solid in the back and Adolfo (Ramirez) was excellent in goal and did a great job distributing the ball for us.”
San Marcos then began to apply the majority of the pressure late in the match. However, the Charger defense, led by Jimenez, stood strong and turned away all attacks.
“We had some stellar defensive and goalkeeper play,” York said. “Our midfield worked really hard on a hot day, really traveling most of the pitch.”
Both squads had late free-kick attempts from outside of the box, but both were unsuccessful to finish off the scoreless draw.
“I was really proud of the team, we had multiple players out today,” York said. “We had some JV call-ups and some other people that played some extended minutes that don’t usually do it.”
Both teams will be back in action on Tuesday when the Royals take on Buena and Dos Pueblos faces off against Oxnard.