Head's Up! Capistrano Valley Beats Santa Ana, Advances to Soccer Semifinals

Capistrano Valley's boys soccer team is certainly making the most of its first postseason appearance in eight years in the CIF Southern Section Division 2 playoffs.

The Cougars survived a late scare Wednesday afternoon, beating Santa Ana, 1-0 at Capistrano Valley High. The second-round victory earned them a spot in Friday's quarterfinals for the first time since 2001.

Capistrano Valley, which has won its last three games, wlll host Arlington of Riverside, a 4-3 shootout winner over El Modena after playing to a scoreless tie in regulation on Wednesday.

For the second game in a row, Capistrano Valley defeated a league champion. Santa Ana (7-8-5) was the Golden West League champion, while the Cougars (14-5-9), who finished third in the Sea View League, beat Sierra League champion Damien in Friday’s first round, 2-1.

“If you’re going to do it, you might as well beat the best,” Capistrano Valley coach Jason Sorrell said. “We’ll learn from our mistakes and keep on going.”

The lone goal began with a free kick by Christian Aguayo that bounced off the head of 5-foot-10 senior defender Ben Manko and into the net.

“I really didn’t expect to score,” Manko said. “It was surreal. I was shocked. I try to create chaos.”

Aguayo had no doubt as to who he was looking for with his kick, with Manko being the “best one in that situation,” according to Sorrell.

“I was looking for Ben the whole time,” Aguayo said. “I’d say this was one of the biggest accomplishments Capo’s ever seen.”

With six minutes left in the game. Capistrano Valley goalkeeper Matt Bermudez collected a long kick toward the left-hand corner facing his net. Instead of picking it up or dribbling it inward, he dribbled to himself, with the ball popping straight up toward him.

Santa Ana forward Jeanmarcos Vargas stole the ball, but then tapped a slow rolling ball just wide of goal, allowing Bermudez to get away with a his mistake.

“I don’t know what he was thinking about,” Sorrell said. “He should’ve dribbled it in. We’ve had last-minute goals that have been scored against us, so maybe that was a break for us.”

Otherwise, on the back end, Capistrano Valley allowed seven shots on goal, but only two in the second half. Defenders like Michael Haubenschid and Manko prevented the Saints' forwards from getting clear shots at the goal, whether at goalkeeper Teddy Czaja in the first half or Bermudez in the second.

The only serious attempt came four minutes into the second half, with Amos De La Paz firing one barely high from about 35 yards out.

Czaja made five saves, the most impressive of which came off a corner kick in the 25th minute. De La Paz quickly kicked a ball that bounced off a Cougars defender but was turned away.

“We closed them down faster,” Manko said. “It prevented shots. In the beginning of the season, we let them run around.”

The Cougars beat Santa Ana, 2-1, on Nov. 23 in the teams' first game of the season.

Capistrano Valley forward Mario Soto had three shots on goal, including one in the 53rd minute that was kick-saved by Santa Ana goalkeeper Peter Mendoza, who had six saves. Forward Felix Espinoza and defender Jonathon Chavez both had two shots on net. Aguayo had one.