It can be quite the jump, from Division 4 to Division 1 in the CIF Southern Section boys soccer playoffs.
Orange Lutheran’s boys soccer team was ready for it.
The Lancers, last season’s Division 4 champions, beat top-seeded Sunny Hills 3-1 in a Division 1 first-round game Wednesday at Buena Park High.
Freeway League champion Sunny Hills was 17-2-2 and was a Division 1 finalist last season. Orange Lutheran was 7-5-5 in the regular season, finished fourth in the six-team Trinity League and qualified for the playoffs as an at-large team.
Orange Lutheran coach Mike Oseguera said playing in the Trinity League, a league that is represented by JSerra and Mater Dei in the elite Open Division and whose third-place team, Servite, won its Division 1 first-round game Wednesday, got the Lancers prepared for the playoffs.
“We’re used to being in close, tight battles against a really good team,” Oseguera said. “On Wednesday we wanted to push the envelope early from the start, put them under pressure and score goals early.”
All four goals were scored in the first half. Orange Lutheran junior AJ Campbell got the first goal off of a corner kick. Campbell scored again and Max Hernandez scored, too, to give Orange Lutheran a 3-0 lead. Sunny Hills got a goal to make it 3-1 at halftime.
Orange Lutheran senior goaltender Dillan Danks made some clutch saves and was supported by a solid rear group in the second half.
Lancers team captain Ethan Phillips, a senior midfielder, said the team relished the challenge of playing in Division 1 with a first-round opponent as good as Sunny Hills.
“Our guys were excited to play in D1,” Phillips said. “The Trinity League is arguably one of the best leagues, if not the best league in the United States. We were very hungry to succeed.”
“It was a total team effort,” Oseguera said. “To beat a team like Sunny Hills you’ve got to have everyone contribute.”
Orange Lutheran hits the road again for the second round. The Lancers play at Newhall Hart (16-4-1) on Friday. Hart beat Rialto Carter 1-0 in the first round Wednesday.
NOTES
• Two Orange County boys soccer teams lost for the first time this season in the first round of the CIF-SS Open Division playoffs. San Clemente, which went into the playoffs with a 13-0-3 record, lost to JSerra, last year’s Division 1 champion, 1-0. Mater Dei, 17-0-1 going into the playoffs, lost to Montclair 2-1. …
• Open Division teams in boys and girls soccer play the same opponent in the first and second rounds. Cumulative scores from those rounds determine which teams advance to the quarterfinals. So teams that lost in the first round have major challenges coming in the second round, Friday for boys soccer, Saturday for girls soccer, especially the Godinez boys team that lost to Riverside Arlington 4-0 in the first round Wednesday. …
• The CIF-SS individual boys wrestling championships will be held at six sites Friday and Saturday. Fountain Valley might have several champions in the Inland Division at Fountain Valley, including senior Anthony Lucio at 126 pounds, senior Hercules Windrath at 138 pounds and senior Ryland Whitworth at 215 pounds. There could be a fine final at 190 pounds where seniors Eugenio Franco of Corona del Mar and Khale McDonnell of Fountain Valley could meet. …
• El Dorado senior wrestler Isaiah Quintero looks to repeat at 120 pounds in the Northern Division championships at Sonora. Calvary Chapel senior Max McWilliams could be a contender at 175 pounds in the Eastern Division meet at Glenn High. And Newport Harbor senior Duda Rodrigues, No. 1 in the nation at 155 pounds, could keep her undefeated streak intact in the girls Eastern Division finals at Marina. …
• The first round of CIF-SS Open Division boys basketball pool play is Friday. Two Orange County teams are in it: Mater Dei, which is home against Downey St. Pius X-St. Matthias, and JSerra, which plays at Eastvale Roosevelt. JSerra beat Roosevelt 90-76, one of Roosevelt’s two losses, on Nov. 28. …
• Mater Dei’s boys basketball team will play in the Open Division without its leading scorer, 6-8 sophomore Brannon Martinsen, who broke a tibia in the second quarter of the Monarchs’ 72-66 win over St. John Bosco. Mater Dei was outscored by Bosco 38-32 in the second half. That doesn’t mean the Monarchs can’t win without Martinsen, because the way sophomore Luke Barnett is shooting 3-pointers and with solid inside play from 6-8 junior Brandon Benjamin and 6-9 junior Blake Davidson, Mater Dei might be just fine. …
• The Trabuco Hills at Fountain Valley boys basketball game in the second round of the Division 2AA playoffs has been moved to Saturday because the Fountain Valley gym is the site of the two-day CIF-SS Inland Division wrestling championships. The wrestling meet, according to CIF-SS scheduling, goes until 9:30 p.m. Friday and until 5 p.m. Saturday. Fountain Valley is confident the wrestling meet will end earlier than 5 p.m. on Saturday. …
• The first round of CIF-SS Open Division girls basketball pool play is Saturday. The game of the day will be No. 5-seeded Sage Hill at No. 4 Mater Dei. Mater Dei beat Sage Hill 74-64 on Dec. 8. Sage Hill’s roster includes players who grew their game with plenty of guidance from Kobe Bryant in Bryant’s Mamba Sports Academy. …
• The weather cleared up just in time for the season-opening Prep Baseball California Spring Invitational, a 16-team, four-round tournament being held at Great Park. The tournament begins Saturday and concludes Feb. 20. The top nine teams in the CIF-SS Division 1 preseason Top 10 are in it: No. 1 Corona, No. 2 Harvard-Westlake, No. 3 JSerra, No. 4 Orange Lutheran, No. 5 Huntington Beach, No. 6 Sherman Oaks Notre Dame, No. 7 Santa Margarita, No. 8 Cypress, No. 9 La Mirada. El Dorado, No. 9 in the Orange County preseason top 10, also is in the tournament. …
• The Loara baseball tournament begins Thursday. Among the 32 teams in it are Orange County preseason No. 7 Foothill, No. 8 San Juan Hills and No. 10 Canyon. The tournament began as The Troy Tournament in 1976 and became the Loara Tournament in 1982.
