By Justin Hsieh and Karen Phan, Staff Writers
This afternoon, the boys’ varsity soccer team faced off against the Orange Lutheran High School Lancers in their final preseason game, ending with a spectacular 5-0 shutout.
The Barons opened the first half aggressively, gaining immediate possession and surging up the field for a goal by senior Andre Nguyen in the third minute of the game. The Barons kept up the pace for a second goal by senior Jackson Ouellette off of a pass from junior Connor Wright.
Rolling in this momentum, the Barons went for yet another goal as Malachi Wright received a pass from junior Tyler Le and took a close-up up shot at the goal. The ball was knocked back by a save from the goalie, but then immediately kicked back into the goal by senior Andre Nguyen to put the Barons at a 3-0 lead in the first quarter.
Following the third goal, the Lancers made several forays into the Barons’ half of the field, but were prevented by the Barons’ defense from making any major plays on the goal. The Barons soon gained possession, and controlled the ball for most of the remaining time in the half.
Although the Lancers attempted several advances throughout the rest of the half, they were all quickly repulsed by the Baron defense. The Baron offense continued to push into the opposition’s territory, culminating in a fourth and final goal of the half when junior William Oakes received the ball from freshman Christopher Ouellette and made a clean shot into the goal.
“[Going into the game] we were looking for consistency, just wanting to play quickly and move the ball. We did that today. The guys were unselfish and spread the ball around and and we had multiple players score goals today, which was good,” said Head Coach Jason Smith.
The second half began once again with strong offensive plays from the Barons, resulting in an impressive drive into the goal by Le in the fifth minute of the half.
“We played with good intensity today,” said Le. “Obviously, with a 5-0 win not much can go wrong but we still have a lot to improve. We have to play quicker, because other teams that we play won’t be like this and so we have to stay ready to play against tougher opposition.”
With strong offensive pushes, solid defense and clean, connecting passes, the Barons maintained their pressure on the Lancers for the rest of the half. Although the opposition managed to penetrate into the Barons’ half of the field briefly towards the end of the game, taking a few shots at the goal, they were unable to surmount the Baron defense.
“Defense played well; the last two games we had shutouts so that was good. We’ve sorted out some of our defensive woes so we’re doing better. We needed to make sure we had a shutout today – especially after being up four-nothing at the half, it was important to maintain the shutout. Goals weren’t as important,” said Smith.
Today’s game had significance because it was the boys’ last game before they begin playing their Sunset League opponents. In that regard, the team’s strong performance was a good omen for their upcoming league season.
“We have a talented group; I feel like if we lock in we can definitely go places,” said Le. “We just have to stay focused and we can definitely go far this year. We’re looking forward to it.”
The Barons will play two of their Sunset League opponents this week, facing Newport Harbor on Wednesday and Los Alamitos on Friday. Come support them at home against the Griffins on Friday at 3 p.m.
This article was updated on December 21, 2018. An earlier version incorrectly stated that the first goal was scored by Malachi Wright.
