Capistrano Valley Beats La Habra, 1-0, to Advance to Division 2 Championships

It had been 29 years since Capistrano Valley’s boys soccer team had reached—and won—a CIF championship. And when the Cougars lost their top ranking midway through the season by winning only two of eight Sea View League matches to finish a distant third and barely make the playoffs, there was no one who thought this year’s team would end that drought.

Well, almost no one.

First-year coach Jason Sorrell and the Cougars refused to give up the dream, and they were aptly rewarded Tuesday afternoon. Kevin Baboiyan scored his seventh goal of the season with less than a minute remaining in regulation for a 1-0 victory over La Habra in a Southern Section Division 2 semifinal at Capistrano Valley High.

The Cougars (16-5-9) advance to the championship game against Claremont, which scored a 1-0 victory over ML King in the other semifinal, on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. at Mission Viejo High.

The Highlanders, who were playing without Luis Garcia (three goals, two assists in the playoffs) because of a two-match red card in the quarterfinals, finish the season 16-4-8.

“Amazing,” said Sorrell, who took over a team that had lost its last 10 games last season and led them to four one-goal victories in the playoffs this season. “We knew defensively they were good. We knew it would be a one-goal game. Both teams only had two or three opportunities to score. We just didn’t give up.”

That never-say-die attitude is how it’s been for the Cougars all season, and the semifinal match against La Habra was a perfect example.

The older, more experienced Cougars kept the pressure on the younger, more inexperienced Highlanders for most of the game, but the defenses were outstanding for both teams. Each offense managed only two shots on goal in the first half, and the only shot on goal in the second half was Baboiyan’s game-winner.

It appeared the match was headed to overtime when Luis Vasquez broke loose at midfield and dribbled toward the right corner of the field. He suddenly passed to his left into an area in which leading-scorer Mario Soto was moving, but Soto played the ball through and it went to a wide-open Baboiyan, who easily slipped the ball into the lower right-hand corner of the net past Highlanders goalkeeper Santiago Garcia.

The goal broke a two-game shutout streak for La Habra, which recorded 18 shutout wins or ties this season, and sent the entire Cougars team into a wild celebration.

“[The win] was not just me, it was all my teammates. We never gave up,” Baboiyan said. “I thought Mario was going to shoot it, by I yelled to him to let it go and it came to me. It was a blur. I couldn’t even see the ball go in, but I heard the crowd and my teammates.”

Said Sorrell: “The funny thing is, I had K.B. move to the left side for the last 10 minutes. He had been playing the right side. It almost looked like a broken play.”

Baboiyan said Sorrell told the team Monday of the Highlanders’ shutouts this season, so he knew that La Habra would be tough defensively. But the Cougars have been tough lately, too. Teddy Czaja had two saves, and Matt Bermudez was so well protected by defensive backs Ben Manko, Michael Haubenschild, Jensen Lee, Nick Godfrey and company that he didn’t see a shot in the second half.

“I told my friend when I heard [of La Habra’s shutouts] that statistics don’t matter in CIF,” Baboiyan said. “You see Edison, the No. 1 team in the country, and Mission Viejo [No. 1 in Division 2] and Tesoro all get beat [in the playoffs]. CIF is a different story. Even in the last minute we never gave up, and it won us the game.”

Baboiyan added that he wouldn’t expect anything less in the championship match.

“I’ve heard good things about both teams [ML King and Claremont],” Baboiyan said. “But we have one chance to win a CIF title for the first time in [more than] 20 years and I’m fully confident that we will win it. In fact, there’s a 100 percent chance we are going to win it. We all believe in each other.”