No. 5 Troy tripped up by Sunny Hills

No. 5 Troy tripped up by Sunny Hills

January 9, 2009 - 3:00 AM
OCVarsity.com

PAUL BERSEBACH, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Troy goalie Shane Ascheri makes a save during game agasint Sunny Hills on Friday. Sunny Hills knocked off No. 5 Troy, 2-1.

FULLERTON - Sunny Hills ended its Freeway League rival's perfect start by upsetting No. 5 Troy, 2-1, in boys soccer action Friday at Sunny Hills.

"It was a great run of nine games," said Warriors coach Mike Silzer, whose team fell to 9-1. "Today was a reality check."

Sung Moon converted a penalty kick in the second half to give the No. 10 Lancers (6-3, 1-0) the 2-1 lead, and shook up the league race in the process. Four Freeway teams are ranked in the top 10, with No. 4 La Habra the highest.

Sunny Hills lost to Valencia on Monday and Lancers coach Mike Schade said it helped his team gear up mentally against Troy.

"That was a tough team to open league with," he said. "The fact is we have had three good days of training and that loss helped us re-focus. We do a great job of not thinking ahead."

Sunny Hills faces No. 9 Fullerton on Monday, while Troy takes on the Highlanders. Silzer said at times his team played the best soccer it has all season, "but the circumstances didn't work out," he said.

"We have our own standards," Silzer said. "We fell short of that today. We had enough chances to be in the game."

The Lancers scored 10 minutes into the match when Anthony Lievanos scored. Teammate Eanok Yu set up for a big shot, but mishit it and it rolled to Lievanos for the goal.

Troy was able to tie it at 1 when Nicolas Corvini headed a cross in from Adrian Flores five minutes into the second half. The Warriors were whistled for a foul in the box with 20 minutes to play and Moon's ground ball found the corner of the net.

"Things worked out for them today," Silzer said. "It's high school soccer and the boys are learning to deal with what's going on around them. We need to turn it on every game.

"I don't think we were dangerous enough on set pieces. When you are chasing the game it's difficult."

Schade said the early goal was a boost for his team. Now Schade will look for his team to carry it into next match.

"We don't have a choice," he said. "We need to."

Contact the writer: ctobolski@ocregister.com