The El Dorado boys soccer team opened the season with an Aliso Cup pool-play match on Wednesday, and Coach Steve McManus couldn’t have been more frustrated with his team’s performance.
Defensively, he said, the Golden Hawks were awful, and on the other side of the ball, they didn’t do much better either. El Dorado, McManus said, has more than a lot of work to do.
“All we had today was one kid that stood out,” McManus said.
But that was all that the host Golden Hawks needed on Wednesday. Cole Smith scored all three of the Golden Hawks’ goals to help El Dorado edge Aliso Niguel, 3-2, and clinch first place in their group and advance into the Champions Cup quarterfinals on Saturday.
“He will be good for us all year long,” McManus said of Smith. “But how we do is going to depend on how well we defend.”
Antonio Jones scored both goals for the Wolverines, and each time he faced little resistance from the Golden Hawks.
His header in the 16th minute was uncontested and knocked into an empty net. And he took the opening kickoff in the second half and launched a 30-yard shot that went through the keeper’s hands and gave the Wolverines a 2-1 lead.
Smith tied the game 10 minutes later, firing a shot across the field and inside the far post. He delivered the winner with four minutes to go, wrapping a 20-yard free kick around the Wolverines’ four-man wall and into the upper-left corner.
“But if he is the only goal scorer that we have, we are not going to win many games,”
This should have been the Golden Hawks’ second game of the season as they were supposed to open the Aliso Cup on Monday against Agoura, but when El Dorado got there, Agoura said it wasn’t a part of the tournament and had never paid the entry fee, McManus said.
So with Agoura out of the three-team pool, Wednesday’s match was for first place.
