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Foothill finally gives up goal, but beats Brea Olinda
BREA – Foothill hadn’t seen it happen this month until the 43rd minute of Thursday’s boys soccer game at Brea Olinda High.
That’s when a Century League opponent finally scored a goal on the Knights. And it took a perfect strike from Nick Dow Boyer to beat a goal keeper and defense that had been perfect for the last 433 minutes – a span of almost 4 ½ games.
His shot from close to 35 yards out, just dipped under the cross bar and over Nathan Brown’s outstretched arm before it landed in the goal.
About 40 minutes later though, Alex Hansen blasted a free kick over the Wildcats wall and into the top left corner of the goal to turn a tie game into a 2-1 victory for the Knights (10-3-3, 5-0-1), who hold first place as they reach the halfway point of the Century League season. El Modena (8-4-1, 3-2-1) is in second followed by third-place Brea Olinda (6-7-3, 3-3-0).
“I am very happy with that (first place) because we started off the first three games and didn’t play very well, and we won all them 1-0,” Foothill coach Barry Turner said. “I thought we played very well today, moved the ball well and looked dangerous. It was a big improvement.”
Turner changed his formation for Wednesday’s game because the Wildcats’ field is narrow, crowned and slick with mud after playing host to a season of football, so Turner took the width out of his midfield and forward line.
His plan worked because in the fourth minute the Knights took a 1-0 lead when Dante Medina beat his mark, sprinted into the box after collecting a pass from Nico Tagaloa and fired a low shot past Kyle Eurich, who tried to make the save for Brea Olinda.
Brea Olinda coach Steve Teal said the Knights’ 4-2-3-1 formation was hard for his Wildcats to break down, and it confused them in the first half, which lead to Medina’s goal.
“They caught us flat, but other than that they didn’t get too many good chances,” Teal said. “They are a strong team and hard to beat. They are very motivated. This is about as good as we get right now. It is disappointing to lose here especially on a set piece. It was a hard loss. We needed this game to stay in the mix. Now we are back in the pack with everybody.”
