DOWNEY – After losing in the CIF-SS Division 6 final, the St.Margaret’s boys soccer team had a second chance to leave a lasting impression on the 2013-14 season.
That’s exactly what the Tartans did Friday night.
Behind a first-half goal from Dane Lind, a second-half goal from Owen Smith and another stingy defensive performance, the Tartans (24-2-6) defeated Farmersville, 2-0, in the CIF Division III SoCal Regional final at Warren High.
The loss snapped the Aztecs’ (24-3-2) 15-game winning streak.
“Losing the CIF final in penalty kicks is always hard to swallow and then to turn around and play on Monday (in a SoCal Regional opener) was a tough one,” St. Margaret’s coach Andrew May said. “But we came together a couple of hours before we had to play our first regional game just so that I could make sure that their mindset was straight and to forget about Saturday it was time to move on. We had a second chance to win a title.”
“We have about 16 seniors and I’ve had a lot of them since they were sophomores and this means a lot to them.”
The Tartans were defeated by Animo Leadership of Inglewood in the CIF-SS final.
The task facing the Tartans on Friday was the scoring prowess of Farmersville’s Pedro Berber. He entered the game with 50 goals, but the Tartans didn’t lose track of him all night.
“Clearly we were focused on him a bit,” St. Margaret’s defender Luis Ceballos said. “We tried to shut him down, but we knew that we had to play with intensity. We all had to pressure no matter who it was on the field. If it was him or their center mid or their center back … we had to go all in.”
Once Lind’s goal went in midway through the first half, the Tartans were able to get into their comfort zone.
“We haven’t given up many goals this year and we know that we can defend very well,” May said. “So for us to go on top is always a good feeling.”
Off of a throw-in, Smith was able to play the ball back to Lind, who was able to beat the goalie to the low corner from approximately 25 yards out.
“That was phenomenal by Lind,” Ceballos said. “He’s always a key player for us.”
Berber and the Aztecs started putting passes together in the second half, but wasn’t able to get any shots on goal.
“We love to pressure and we don’t pressure as one, we pressure as a group,” May said. “It was hard for him (Berber) to dribble out of three defenders, two defenders. I’m sure he could beat one defender, but we’ve always done a good team defending job. It’s hard to score on us.”
Contact the writer: dcalhoun@ocregister.com
