Laguna boys soccer rolls on

A 1-0 shutout of rival Sea Kings puts Breakers at 5-0; key match against Tesoro awaits.Today, the Laguna Beach High boys’ soccer team is sitting in a place where coach Giovanni Vlahos had hoped his squad would be -- in first-place.

The Breakers ran their Pacific Coast League record to 5-0 and remained the lone undefeated team in league play after going on the road Wednesday to blank rival Corona del Mar, 1-0.

The victory was the 10th of the season for the Breakers, who improved to 10-2-1 overall.

A key battle looms today though, as Laguna hosts second-place Tesoro at 6:15 p.m. at Guyer Field.

“Should make for an extremely interesting game,” Vlahos said.

Laguna came out strong Wednesday against the Sea Kings in a match that held true to most rivalry games: rough play and smack talk.

Derek LeBon, the Breakers’ senior captain, scored what turned out the only goal of the match 15-minutes into the match.

“My boys started off the game with a lot of intensity and pressure,” Vlahos said. “Derek put a move on a CdM defender and the only thing left for him to do was take Derek down in the penalty box, which allowed us to get a penalty kick.”

LeBon planted the ball into the net to record his 11th goal of the year.

“After that there were missed opportunities from both teams but we went into the half still up 1-0,” Vlahos said. “The second half was more of the same with the exception that you could see the history of our rivalry start to take form. Cheap shots and trash talking became more and more evident as the time ticked away and our defense kept holding strong.

“I can’t say enough about how hard our defense and midfield played. Our defense anchored by Brenden Healey, Michael Tachovsky, Alex Mars and Chris Devries held strong and got our goalkeeper, Erik Haug, had his fourth shutout of the season.”

Prior to defeating the Sea Kings, Laguna entered the Corona del Mar match on a roll, having opened league play with four consecutive victories, including a Jan. 9 upset of Northwood.

League victim No. 4 was University, which fell to the visiting Breakers, 2-1.

That win, combined with a scoreless game between Northwood and Tesoro, had given Laguna sole possession of first-place in the league standings.

The Trojans took advantage of their short playing field to hold the Breakers to a scoreless tie at the half, and took a 1-0 lead 20 minutes into the second half.

University scored what turned out to be its only goal of the game when Laguna had a mix-up in defensive coverage.

“But what has been a great thing for a coach to see was how we have responded to being down,” Vlahos said. “We don’t let our heads go down. We start getting more of a bounce in our step.”

With 10 minutes left to play, Laguna’s Roman Fricker, an exchange student from Germany, scored his first goal of the season on a header. That shot came courtesy of a nicely-placed cross from freshman Tommy Hopper.

Five minutes later, hard work and constant pressuring by senior Michael Reyes resulted in the Breakers’ second goal.

“He just kept poking his body in and around the six and on that one opportunity, when he found the ball there, he made the Uni defense and keeper pay for it,” Vlahos said.

“Hopefully we can keep winning. My boys hold their own destiny now as far as making the playoffs. What more can a team ask for?”