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Damian Dottore. Sports. HS Reporter.

// MORE INFORMATION: Associate Mug Shot taken August 24, 2010 : by KATE LUCAS, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Winning the Golden West League’s boys soccer championship has likely slipped out of reach for Westminster, but the Lions are right in the middle of the fight to earn a spot in the CIF-SS Division 2 playoffs.

After rallying to beat Orange, 2-1, on Wednesday, the host Lions hold a share of second place with the Panthers.

Santa Ana has a firm grip on first, sitting three games ahead of both the Lions and Panthers, but the top three teams in the standings at the end of the season will qualify for the postseason.

“We still have a chance (at the playoffs). Santa Ana is solid again this year. I told the boys to control the controllables, and that is our games. We will see what happens along the way,” Westminster coach Heath Oberle said. “If we do our job, there is always a chance.”

Sometimes, though, Oberle said, the Lions “have to get punched” before they wake up and realize what is riding on each result now. Take what happened on Wednesday. Orange did a better job of being first to the ball early in the early going until Eduardo Barreto delivered a solid blow to the Lions (10-6-2, 3-3), firing a penalty kick into the right side of the net, giving the Panthers (6-8-3, 3-3) a 1-0 first half lead.

“But we are a very strong-willed team. They work hard, and they don’t give up,” Oberle said. “It keeps us in the games, and it helps us win games.”

Once they were down, the Lions seemed to do a better job getting behind the Panthers’ short-handed backline. In the 52nd minute, Kevin Guadarrama knocked in the equalizer, and 10 minutes later, Anthony Bello netted the game winner for Westminster.

David Ortiz, the cornerstone of the Panthers’ defense, started the game on the bench because of a pulled groin muscle. Orange coach Victor Esparza said Ortiz is at about 80 percent, but in the second half, Esparza put Ortiz in the game because he said the “the middle was weak for us today.”   

“The first 25 minutes, we were great. We were pressuring them. They hardly had any chances,” Esparza said. “But the last 15 of the first half and the second half, we struggled to keep possession and control the ball.”

The Panthers did have a chance to even the score in the 78th minute when Barreto lined a shot from the top of the box. But Julio Vasquez got a toe on the ball to knock the shot away for the Lions.

“We should have won this game,” Esparaza said.

In other boys soccer:

No. 5 Los Alamitos 1, Marina 0: Aron Rudich knocked the game winner off a pass from Kevin Herring to lead the visiting Griffins in the Sunset League match.

No. 10 Santiago 6, La Quinta 0: Israel Celis and Humberto Garcia each scored two goals to lead the host Cavaliers to the Garden Grove League victory

No. 1 Servite 2, Mater Dei 0: Corbin Mercado and Alex Pinon both finished with a goal for the host Friars in the Trinity League match.