Fountain Valley boys’ soccer moves into tie for first in Sunset League
The Sunset League boys’ soccer race is effectively down to the steepest of rivals, with a showdown a day away, after Fountain Valley took care of its opportunities in a comfortable victory over the team looming closest behind.
Drew Payne, Cash Heit and Ethan Ro scored and assisted goals and the Barons made big plays at the back when required in a 4-2 triumph Wednesday evening at Huntington Beach.
Next up: archrival Edison (6-4, 5-0 in the Sunset League), the consensus title favorite, Friday night on the Chargers’ huge field.
“It’s five wins, but five wins isn’t going to get us in the playoffs [with six league games to play],” Fountain Valley coach Jason Smith said. “We’ve just got to keep going. It’s a tough week. We knew we were going to be tested. I think we passed the first test, and now we got our second test.”
The Chargers, idle Wednesday, haven’t been severely tested, scoring 18 goals and conceding twice in their first five Sunset outings. Fountain Valley (6-2, 5-0) has been on a roll, putting away 16 goals in its past four games.
“Those are the top two teams, right now, as advertised ...,” said Huntington Beach coach Matt Moseley, who dropped a 2-0 home decision to Edison three weeks ago. “I almost want to skip my game [against Corona del Mar] and go watch it.”
Huntington Beach (7-5-3, 3-2) wasn’t so tidy with its chances, conceded four minutes after immediately answering Fountain Valley’s first goal, then fell behind 4-1 before scoring from a corner kick in stoppage. They struggled to contain Payne and Ro and gained few rewards during spells — with Kainoa Delarole, on the left flank and then up front, the chief protagonist — of possession and penetration.
“They man-marked us, and it was very effective,” Moseley said. “They counterattacked extremely well. They’re extremely fast, especially at the wings. They got in behind us several times, and [Payne] is very dangerous, as well. Hat’s off to them. They’re dangerous up top, and they did what they needed to do defensively to keep us from scoring goals, and then countered out of it.
“That being said, did we have two blatant opportunities to score in the first minute of the game? Yes. Did we have another opportunity to score within five minutes of that? Yes. Did we finish our opportunities? No. The outlook would be entirely different if we are able to bag one of those, but then we give up the early goal ... and we immediately respond. That changes things. But then they respond within five minutes, and then it’s just defeating.”
Heit gave the Barons a 19th-minute lead, a glancing header on the sprint from Ro’s corner kick, and it was even a minute later, when Clayton Gutierrez put away Juan Bonilla’s goalmouth feed from the right post.
Payne, with his sixth goal over five games, restored Fountain Valley’s advantage on a quick burst in the 24th minute. It was too easy: “Cash won the ball, and he just split a perfect ball through two guys,” Payne said. “I just took a touch around [a defender], and then second touch was in.”
Huntington Beach might have equalized twice, in the 31st minute and then five minutes into the second half, but for center back John Ennen‘s goal-line clearance of a Bonilla shot and goalkeeper Jacob Stevens’ acrobatic parry of Greyson Simington’s header onto the left post.
The Barons were the better side the rest of the way and built a three-goal lead on Umar Majid‘s sharp 56th-minute shot inside the right post and Bernardo De Souza’s 73rd-minute goal-line triumph against two defenders to finish Payne’s looping header from a long Nixon Hunt throw-in.
“At times we looked great,” Smith said. “At times they looked great. And at times, both of us were vulnerable. We definitely made the most of our chances, and I think we had the edge on the attack and the pressure, and that equated to four goals, right?”
How good is Fountain Valley?
“Find out Friday night,” said Smith, whose team will be home in the Feb. 4 rematch to close the regular season. “I think we’re good. We always can improve. We weren’t perfect tonight. There’s things we need to work on and things we need to be better at, but we had flashes of brilliance tonight. And I think if we can sustain that, then, we got a chance to do bigger and better things.”
Edison, a longtime Sunset powerhouse, has won 11 of the past 13 meetings, outscoring the Barons, 12-1, in four wins the past three seasons. Its home field, significantly larger than most, plays into its strengths.
“We know it’s gonna be a tough game, right?” Smith said. “We just need to be able to keep our shape, keep our composure, and keep doing what we’ve been doing to be successful. ... We’ve got to win the ball. We’ve got to keep the ball. We’ve got to possess. Can’t let them get too into open space, because there’s so much space [that it’s difficult] to disrupt their rhythm. You can’t give them time to play, so we’ve got to close the gaps. We can’t make it easy for them.”
Payne is excited about the challenge.
“I’ve been playing varsity for four years,” he said. “I haven’t beat them yet, but I think this is a year there’s a different [feeling]. We can’t be arrogant, but we’ve got to be confident. We can’t take it lightly. We know it’s gonna be a hard game, and we know we can win the game.”
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