By RICK HOFF - For the North County Times - | Posted: Thursday, December 31, 2009 5:20 pm
CARMEL VALLEY ---- Maybe Pirates just aren't morning people.
The Oceanside High boys soccer team was a little slow reacting to the alarm, giving up three quick goals to Montgomery to start Thursday morning's Premier Division final of the 15th annual Southern California High School Soccer Showcase. The Pirates did awake in time to make a valiant comeback before coming up short in a 3-2 loss that gave the Aztecs the Premier Division title at Cathedral Catholic's Manchester Stadium.
"We were a little sleepy the first 10 minutes of the game," said senior forward Juan Carlos Alvarez, who scored one goal and assisted on another for Oceanside. "The team played well in the second half, but time wasn't in our favor."
Neither was the 8:30 a.m. start time. The Aztecs (11-3-2) scored less than two minutes into the match when senior forward Joey Estrada snuck a shot past Pirates goalkeeper Salvador Leal from the right side. Barely six minutes later, senior midfielder Daniel Moreno chipped in a deflection from a corner kick to make it 2-0.
Leal came up with a strong diving save in the 15th minute to prevent Alvin Garcia from scoring, but Garcia, a senior forward for the Aztecs, scored three minutes later to give the South Bay team a 3-0 advantage.
"I hate to say it, but we spotted them three bad goals," said Pirates coach Frank Zimmerman, whose team lost for just the third time in 13 matches (9-3-1).
"We got lucky at the beginning," Montgomery coach Genaro Garcia said. "The rest of the game was pretty much even."
The Aztecs had taken seven shots on goal before the Pirates could mount a serious offensive push, but Oceanside finally got on the scoreboard in the 27th minute when its leading scorer, senior forward Manuel Galicia, converted a corner kick from Alvarez for his ninth goal of the season.
"That was a great goal," Zimmerman said, "a lot better than the three we gave up."
Montgomery goalie Luis Reyna snatched a corner kick by Oceanside's Jose Basurto just before halftime to preserve the Aztecs' 3-1 lead.
"They're a big team, and they were winning a lot of air balls," Zimmerman said. "We made the mistake of not winning the second ball. When you're short like us, you have to challenge the first ball and win the second ball or you're dead."
The Pirates put more pressure on Reyna in the second half, especially with a series of shots on goal by Alvarez beginning in the 65th minute. One attempt from straight out went just over the crossbar, another shot was barely left of the post, and a header by Alvarez with about 10 minutes remaining was knocked over the bar by Reyna.
A hard shot by Richard Serrato was knocked away by Reyna, but Alvarez finally broke through in the 78th minute with a 20-yard free kick off an assist by Marcos Andrade. Oceanside, however, could not score the equalizer in the final minutes and had to settle for its second tournament runner-up finish this season.
"Oceanside ended up playing the kind of match I suspected at the beginning," said Genaro Garcia, whose Aztecs lost in the final of the Grossmont Tournament last week on penalty kicks against Granite Hills. "I was nervous about this game, especially after losing in the finals of the last tournament."
Montgomery had only four shots on goal in the second half as Leal finished with three saves for the Pirates, who kick off Valley League play Jan. 6 at Valley Center.
"We'll just have to warm up better," said Alvarez, who has four goals this season and leads the Pirates with six assists. "We can't have those kind of mistakes like we had today."
