PLACENTIA – Through its first 10 games of the season, Valencia gave up just three goals. Damien of La Verne scored almost that much in just 80 minutes against the Tigers.
With 10 minutes to go in the North Orange County Championship Varsity 1 championship match, David Gang sprinted past the Tigers’ backline on a counter attack and set the final margin in a 2-1 victory for the Spartans on Tuesday at Valencia High.
“He was their guy. He’s fast, physical, good in the air and on the ground striker,” Valencia coach Barry Gardner said. “I think we did a good job on him.”
Gardner said “playing a silly ball” wide when the Tigers had too many players in the final third is what set up Gang’s decisive score.
“It was just a silly breakdown defensively,” Gardner said. “We needed to play that ball harder and got caught on the counter.”
In the 46th minute, Gang got free on corner kick to put the Spartans’ up 1-0. It came just a minute after Valencia had an Angel Rangel goal taken away because of a foul. Brandon Zirkle tied the game with his 25-yard strike in the 61st minute.
Zirkle’s score could have given Valencia (6-2-3) Victor Romero not poked Noe Ana’s shot at the goal line moments earlier.
There were no shortage of scoring opportunities for the Tigers in this match, taking two close-range shots in the first five minutes of the game.
The Tigers created most of their chances when Zirkle ran into the left corner. That’s what happened in the 18th minute when he sent a pass to Rangel as he was making a near-post run, but the ball just went under his foot.
A few minutes later, it was Rangel who sent a cross into the box which just missed its intended target, Jackson Mirth, but Michael Antonio was following the play and took aim at the far post. Dylan Digrazia stopped the shot for the Spartans (8-2-1).
Clutch goal keeping got the Tigers into their sixth NOCC championship, and it saved them once again on Tuesday.
In the 26th minute, AJ Arcilla turned away Gang’s near-post try, but Arcilla couldn’t control the rebound and the ball rolled, leaving Peter Li staring at basically an open goal when he took his shot. At the last second, Arcilla leaped in front of the ball to make the save for the Tigers.
Despite the final score, Gardner said he could see that the Tigers are making progress.
“Guys are coming along. Our sophomores are starting to play better in key roles in the middle, and our defensive shape was good,” Gardner said. “We are creating good opportunities, and moving forward that is good.”
In the Varsity 2 championship
Estancia 3, La Serna 0: Chris Moya, Ricardo Guitierrez and Christian Monroy each scored to give the Eagles (8-1-1) their second NOCC championship in the six years that Robert Castellano has been coaching the team.
“We made a list of goals at the beginning of the season, and winning this tournament was one of them,” Castellano said. “We are hungry this year.”
