PLACENTIA El Dorado relied on its dominant defense throughout the postseason, but it showed a nice touch on offense, too, Saturday, as the Golden Hawks earned a 3-1 victory over Montgomery of San Diego to win the Division III Southern California Regional championship at Valencia High.
The Golden Hawks (20-7-5) scored all three goals off set-pieces, and they countered the Aztecs’ ball-control style with air-tight defense within the 18-yard box.
El Dorado allowed just three goals over eight playoff matches and finished the season on a 19-game unbeaten streak.
“When you get a mentality of winning, it kind of rubs off on the boys and they start believing in themselves,” El Dorado coach Steve McManus said. “It starts with our defending. We are rock solid.”
The Hawks capitalized on their first set piece of the match when Connor Veronese made a perfect throw-in to Connor Leach, who scored on a header to put El Dorado ahead 1-0 in the 10th minute.
Later in the half, Leach and Veronese teamed up again, this time on defense. The pair disrupted an Aztecs attacker who was dribbling down the middle of the field and was about 15 yards from the goal.
Minutes later, the Hawks scored off another set piece, again started by a throw-in from Veronese.
The throw-in missed Nathan Baranack, the intended target, but Baranack ran down the ball and kicked it back toward the goal, where Tyler Coleman kicked it in to give the Hawks a 2-0 lead.
Four minutes into the second half, the Aztecs’ Jesus Salazar took a hard shot from 25 yards out that sailed over the goal.
A minute later, the Aztecs (18-5-4) had what was by far their best scoring chance of the match to that point, when midfielder Julian Castro broke free and took a wide-open shot. But Hawks goalkeeper Chad Griffin fell to the ground to make the save.
In the 67th minute, the Hawks put the game away when Connor Willey was in the right spot to score on a ball that had deflected off the top of the goal.
