El Toro finally comes up empty

MISSION VIEJO - El Toro found itself in a rather unusual situation at Trabuco Hills High. The Chargers were trailing in a boys soccer game. That only had happened to them two other times in the 30 previous games they played this season.

This time, however, they could never get back into the game, and El Camino Real of Woodland Hills handed El Toro its first shutout of the season, cruising to a 3-0 victory in the second round of the SoCal Regional.

The other times that the Chargers fell behind, they came back to beat Laguna Hills, 5-1, and tie Woodbridge, 1-1.

"I didn't talk to the team a lot now," El Toro coach Ken Sjobom said. "I have found that when you don't have a lot of positive things to say, it is sometimes better to wait a day. We just didn't play that well today."

The Chargers (26-2-3) did seem to be a bit out of synch on Tuesday.

Three times in the first 18 minutes, they were called for being offsides. They only took five shots, three of them hitting the football goal post that is about a foot above the soccer goal and another sailed just wide to the left. The latter happened with 18 minutes to go in the game after Jacob Kaiser lobbed a free kick to Alex Cannas as Cannas sprinted toward the box. Fredie Razo was there to pick up the loose ball, but his shot missed the mark.

The Conquistadors (19-7-7), on the other hand, had no problem finding the goal. In the second minute, Sebastien Rodriguez scored from about 20 yards out. And after that Jose Velasquez added a pair of goals, one in the 20th minute and the other in the 49th. El Toro goalie Justin Tucker almost stopped Velasquez once, sliding in front of him in the box, but Velasquez dribbled through him and knocked the ball into a wide-open net.

"They are ridiculously talented. They have speed everywhere," Sjobom said. "Bottom line is, we ran out of gas, and we didn't play with the passion that we needed to."

Contact the writer: ddottore@ocregister.com