Laguna off to solid start

Mike Sciacca

The Laguna Beach High boys’ soccer team headed into the 2004-05

season with a new head coach, yet the Breakers haven’t missed a

stride during the transition.

Laguna wrapped up a successful nonleague season Tuesday by

fighting visiting San Clemente to a scoreless draw.

Erik Haug had seven saves for the Breakers, who played to their

first tie of the season.

In its previous outing, Laguna won for the sixth time by blanking

host Tustin, 3-0, in nonleague play.

Brennan Hexberg led the Breakers in scoring with two goals, and

the third goal was scored by Danny Bober.

Haug recorded seven saves against the Tillers (0-5).

Laguna, now 6-1-1, is off for the holidays and returns to the

playing field on Jan. 7 to battle Northwood in the Pacific Coast

League opener for both schools.

The match will get underway at 6:15 p.m., preceded by the junior

varsity match at 4:45 p.m. and the frosh/soph match at 3:15 p.m., all

at Guyer Field.

In boys’ basketball, Laguna trailed Edison by three points at the

half, outscored the Chargers by 14 in the third quarter, then held

off a late comeback attempt to score a 54-50 nonleague victory.

Nikola Nikolic’s 26 points topped all scorers and teammate Ivan

Kovacevic scored 13 points to go along with 10 rebounds.

The win evened Laguna’s record at 5-5.

In play at the Irvine World News Tournament, Pacific Coast League

rival Northwood pinned a 67-59 defeat on Laguna in a consolation

round game.

Nikolic again led Laguna in scoring with 16 points.

Josh Cedeno scored 15 and Michael Kote added 11 points for the Breakers.

Also at the tournament, Laguna was a 77-61 victor over Irvine.

The Breakers came back from a five-point first quarter deficit to

outscore the Vaqueros by 17 in the second quarter to take command.

Four Breakers scoring in double figures as Nikolic hit for 23

points, Kote scored 14, Jeff Clark netted 13 and Bobby Monroe

finished with 10.

Laguna had opened the tournament with a 64-43 loss to Francis

Parker. Kote and Cedeno each scored eight points for the Breakers.