HUNTINGTON BEACH – Anaheim boys soccer coach Joe Chavez heard the scouting report on Redondo Union, so he knew the Sea Hawks were a bigger, more physical team up top than what the Colonists usually see in the Orange League.
“So we changed our marking system,” Chavez said, “It worked in our favor. We made good adjustments.”
And as a result, Anaheim will play for the Marina Tournament championship after, edging the Seahawks, 1-0, in Saturday’s semifinal match. The Colonists (6-1-1) will face Orange League rival Katella on Monday at 1 p.m. The Knights advanced to the championship after beating Lawndale, 5-4, on penalty kicks in the other semifinal.
Most of the Colonists’ service against Redondo came from Mario Morales on the left side. And in the 58th minute, he sent a high-arcing cross to the far post over Ricky Olvera, Redondo’s keeper, to Albert Cabrera, who knocked in the game-winner for Anaheim.
“We have three lefties on the team. It is a commodity to have just one, so we just had to keep serving and serving,” Chavez said. “We run a drill almost every other session in practice, so I told them to keep doing it, and we caught them.”
Morales’ cross was the only thing that Olvera missed in the second half as he turned away two Anaheim shots taken from within 20 yards in the game’s closing minutes. The first came in the 62nd minute after Cabrera used a couple of spin moves to slip around his marks and deliver the ball to Luis Dricio. Dricio took a shot from near the penalty spot, but Olvera batted it away. A few minutes later, Paul Diaz, who has one goal and three assists in the tournament, wrapped an 18-yard free kick around the Seahawks’ wall toward the upper left corner, but Olvera leaped high enough to deny the Colonists again.
Anaheim got some clutch goal keeping, too. In the 65th minute, Carlos Cabezas, the Colonsists’ second-half keeper, stopped Ryan Wadhams’ point-blank shot with one hand, but the ball kept rolling toward the goal line. And just as the ball was about to roll in, Cabezas made the save.
“The guys have set good goals, and we know that we have talent,” Chavez said. “It is just a matter of going each game in to see if we are improving and getting the most out of the players. And if we see that improvement, we should be good.”
