BOYS SOCCER: Late Game Heroics Sink Santa Cruz

The Score: Mitty 3, Santa Cruz 2

The Star: Santa Cruz Goalkeeper Dylan Manning, who made leaping saves, diving fingertip stops and even took one off the face in the hard-fought, non-league affair. He racked up eight saves in the match.

The Turning Point: A Mitty free kick just outside of the Santa Cruz goal box, slammed off the far post and into the goal to give Mitty a 3-2 lead with just minutes to play.

The Quote: "We've got a few things to work on in terms of finishing games," said Santa Cruz Head Coach Semih Sabankaya. "But we played well for the most part and we'll be OK."

What's Next? Santa Cruz will host Sacred Heart Cathedral on Friday.

Bottom Line: Santa Cruz dominated the first half but could not capitalize on several scoring opportunities and finished the half all even at 1-1. Some late defensive letdowns proved to be the difference as the home team won the game, 3-2.

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By Nicholas Mukhar

A mixture of missed opportunities and late defensive lapses eventually cost the Santa Cruz High boys soccer team a road victory against Archbishop Mitty Prep-San Jose on a rainy Tuesday afternoon.

In the first preseason game of the season, Santa Cruz out-chanced Mitty but eventually fell, 3-2.   

The first half was a one-sided affair as Santa Cruz (0-1) was steadily on the attack, led by sophomore forward John Chronopoulos, who gave Mitty fits all evening.

But the Cardinals push up-field could rarely break the Mitty defenders, and Santa Cruz could only muster six shots, four on goal, a low figure considering that virtually the entire first half was played in Mitty territory.

The Cardinals finally broke through midway through the first half on their first corner kick of the game.

The ball was fed to  Chronopoulos in front of the net, who chipped it past the Mitty Goalkeeper for the 1-0 advantage.

But the theme of this game was the Monarchs counterattack, and it was evident as soon as they fell behind on their home field.

Rather than repeatedly pushing the ball into Santa Cruz territory, Mitty responded with a sound transition game of defensive stops leading to quick breakaways.

Toward the end of the first half, Mitty answered with a corner kick of its own that resulted in junior Zack Downey burying the ball in the back of the net for the equalizer going into halftime.

"We've got a few things to work on in terms of finishing games," said Santa Cruz head coach Semih Sabankaya. "But we played well for the most part and we'll be OK."

The second half brought on a much more evenly-played, extremely physical match, as slide-tackles and takedowns routinely stopped play. With both keepers at the top of their games, it looked as though the two teams were destined for a one-one tie.

Then the floodgates opened up, both literally and figuratively.

Rain began pouring down as Santa Cruz mounted an attack down the middle of the field. A traffic jam in front of the Mitty goal resulted in a shot that was stonewalled by the Mitty goalkeeper, but he could not secure the ball.

That left a wide-open rebound shot for Cardinals forward Amondo Merlin-Popp, who did not miss.

Merlin-Popp slammed home what at the time appeared to be the winning goal—a no-doubter to the back of the net that hushed the Mitty crowd with less than 10 minutes remaining.

But again, Mitty countered.

Late in the contest, a seemingly harmless ball was fed to the near corner of the field.

The ball was saved by the Mitty forward and angled across the goal and into the opposite corner of the net for a stunning, game-tying score that rejuvenated both the home team and their crowd.

From that point forward, Mitty was on the attack.

A free kick shot that appeared to have eyes angled off the foot of Mitty's Evan Leedeman, through a web of Santa Cruz defenders, off the bottom of the far post and into the net for the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal of the game.

Manning, who had been denying goals at all four corners of the net all night, clearly did not see the ball through the crowd of players in front of him and looked shocked to see the ball by him.

The hard-luck loss leaves Santa Cruz with a bitter taste, as they take the loss in a hard fought season opener against a strong West Catholic League foe

Santa Cruz has three days to regroup before hosting another WCAL team, Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco, on Dec. 17.

                                Mitty: 3                                             Santa Cruz: 2

Shots                         14                                                            18

Corner kicks              4                                                               4

Saves                        6                                                                8