Pomona prevails against Eastbluff

The oddity most apparent in Tuesday’s Daily Pilot Cup fifth- and sixth-grade boys’ soccer game between Pomona Elementary and Eastbluff was a serious defiance of the odds.

With shot after mounting shot, and three would-be goals negated by offsides calls, Pomona’s dominance of the Gold Division contest was conspicuously absent to anyone with knowledge of the actual score.

But with a resilience perhaps most abundant in the very young, Pomona pushed through to tally two late goals and collect a 3-1 triumph in the pool-play opener at the Jack Hammet Sports Complex.

“We just had to keep doing what we were doing,” Pomona Coach Sergio Lugo said of the key to enduring through an unlikely 1-1 deadlock that existed 40 minutes into the 50-minute contest.

But in the 40th minute, Adolfo Bahena popped a cross from Chris Sollano into the net for the go-ahead score.

Alex DeLeon then drilled a clearing pass off the foot of an Eastbluff defender into the net to put the game away in the 47th minute.

In reality, however, the game was hardly in doubt, as one can’t score on shots one never takes. Eastbluff, in fact, took just one shot in the contest, a goal off the foot of Jack Thompson that knotted the score in the 35th minute.

Otherwise, the offense was generated exclusively by Pomona, which repeatedly created scoring chances by crossing the ball into the box from the wings.

One such cross by Sollono early in the second half set up Bahena, who drove a shot off the crossbar that Eastbluff goalkeeper Carson Campbell then collected to avert any damage.

Another Sollano cross from the right wing in the 37th minute was buried into the net by Esteban Esquivel. But the offsides flag was raised to negate the apparent go-ahead tally.

Bahena opened the scoring by launching a drive from about 20 yards out on the right side in the sixth minute. The ball sailed over a retreating goalie who had no chance to obstruct its path. The ball kissed fortuitously off the inside of the left goal post and caromed across the cage into the netting behind the right post.

Pomona had all nine first-half shots, three of which produced saves from Eastbluff first-half goalkeeper Miles Greenberg.

Pomona finished with 16 shots and its keeper, Caesar Pedroza, went without a save through no fault of his own.

Pomona had yet another goal negated by offsides in the ninth minute, when Ismael Gutierrez redirected a shot by Eddie Garcia past the goalkeeper, only to hear the whistle signifying the penalty seconds later.

Yovani Avila was another offensive catalyst for Pomona, for which Jesse Aguilar added to its thorough command of the ball.

Thompson’s equalizer was converted after he ran onto a through ball on the right wing and mirrored Bahena’s carom off the same spot inside the left post.

Additional contributors for Pomona included Erik Ayala, Ramiro Coyotzi, Anthony Naranjo, Jason Hernandez, Imanol Vargas and Oswaldo Sanchez.

Eastbluff’s roster included Joey Tarcani, Alex Christopher, Cole Junge, Charlie Mannon, Andrew Bertoia, Grant Berkey, Jack Spraker, Cody Hensley, Tommy Eastmond and Jagger Martinez.

Eastbluff is coached by Jeff Lenherr.

Pomona returns to action Thursday at 4:30 p.m. against Mariners.