This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Sports

Diablos Survive Tustin, Elements for 2-0 Boys Soccer Victory

After a lackluster first half with no shot attempts, top-seeded Mission Viejo strikes quickly with two goals within two minutes in the second half to advance.

During the first half of Friday night’s CIF Southern Section Division 2 boys soccer playoff match, a light rain fell at Mission Viejo High and the Diablos played rather tentatively. There were long, looping passes, few hard tackles and not a single attempted shot against wild-card entry winner, the Tustin Tillers.

However, in the second half, when the rain began to intensify and a near downpour ensued, ironically enough so did Mission Viejo. The Diablos pushed their defense up to midfield, the offense attempted 12 shots, including five on goal, and the team slid past the Tillers, 2-0, in a first-round game on a slippery stadium field.

Mission Viejo (12-2-0), the undefeated champions of the South Coast League, will play the winner of M.L. King-Segerstrom first-round game in the second round on Wednesday.

Find out what's happening in Mission Viejowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The Diablos have outscored their opponents, 27-7, in 14 games this season, and many of their goals have come in bunches. This game was no exception.

The Diablos took control from the opening whistle of the second half and shot five times, putting the pressure on Tillers goalkeeper Emmanuel Hernandez. Finally, with 20 minutes left, the ball was centered in the middle. Ryan Mottram headed the ball down, it bounced up and Forrest Maxon headed it just over the outstretched arms of Hernandez for the goal.

Find out what's happening in Mission Viejowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Slightly more than a minute later, Mission Viejo got the ball back about 30 yards from the Tillers' goal. Dusan Stevanovich shot and Hernandez blocked it. The ball bounced to Christian Gonzalez, who shot and Hernandez blocked it again, but right back to Gonzalez. This time, Gonzalez kicked the ball high and into the right-hand corner of the net past Hernandez, and suddenly Mission Viejo had a 2-0 lead.

“That keeper was phenomenal,” said Gonzalez, who scored his 13th goal of the season. “We shot once, then twice, and he kept blocking them. But it came right back to me and I wasn’t going to miss that time.”

Hernandez finished with four saves, all in the second half.

On the other end, Tustin had several chances to score with 12 shot attempts and five shots on goal. But the Mission Viejo defense was tough when it needed to be and goalkeeper Christopher Britt again was brilliant in goal, making several difficult plays and finishing with five saves for his eighth shutout of the season.

“It was pretty tough in the first half,” Gonzalez said. “We didn’t know what to expect, but we didn’t get frustrated. We just wanted to get the tempo up and play our game. I hadn’t practiced the last two days [because of illness], but I practiced this morning and felt pretty good. We knew we could beat them. We just kept working and working.”

Mission Viejo coach Roger Castle said he was pleased with his team’s second-half performance, and hopes they learned that it will take a complete 80-minute game to keep advancing in the playoffs.

“I think we came out nervous in the first half and we didn’t put any pressure on them,” Castle said. “In the second half we put [Alan] Banda in the middle, moved our line up to midfield and attacked more down the sidelines. That little adjustment seemed to work. That first playoff game is always the toughest, but I think we learned from the experience.”

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?