PHOTOS: Santa Ana tested but pulls out 1-0 win over Lakewood in CIF playoff opener

Santa Ana forward Juan Rodríguez battles for a 50-50 ball against Lakewood defender Diego Pérez on Friday’s CIF playoffs. (Photos: OC Sports Zone, Fernando M. Donado)

After winning the Orange Coast League in undefeated fashion, the Santa Ana High School boys soccer team grinded out a 1-0 victory over Lakewood on an 82-degree Friday afternoon at Santa Ana Stadium in the first round of the CIF Division 2 playoffs.

A goal by sophomore midfielder Alfredo Ceja in the 34^th minute of the first half, and stingy defense teamed up with a shutout performance from goalkeeper Randy Guerrero was the formula that the Saints (14-3-4, 9-0-1) required to tame a feisty attack by the Lancers (8-11-2, 4-8) that battled until the final minute of the game.

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“We are going to defend our house with everything we got. That’s what we’ve asked the kids all year. They played great. I couldn’t have asked more from them,” said Santa Ana soccer coach Joe Peñaflor. “We had to get a lot of guys in there. Some guys hadn’t had a lot of playing time, but they ended up with a good 50-60 minutes, and that’s hard to do in a First Round CIF game if you haven’t been playing. And they did everything we asked from them.”

The match was halted for about 25 minutes while Lakewood’s senior midfielder Isaiah González received treatment on his right leg after a collision with Santa Ana’s Paul Carrillo in the 68^th minute of the game. Gonzalez had to be removed from the field on a stretcher.

“(The injury), it slowed us down a bit. But it did hurt us because he (González) is one of the key guys in the middle of the field. We don’t complain, but the game kind of got out of the ref’s control,” said Lakewood soccer Coach Alex Díaz. “It could have gone either way, but again this is the beauty of soccer. Congrats to them. They got their chance and they put it away.”

The scoring play developed when Saints forward Juan Rodriguez made a run, took the ball to the touchline, and fed a trailer pass to the center of the box to Ceja, who kicked a low shot that ricochet off of the right post of Lakewood’s goalkeeper Diego Ortiz and into the net.

“It was really big. It’s for the team and for the coaches. We all got hiked up for the game, and we brought it home,” said Cejas.

After the Saints score, Lakewood pressed through the flanks of the field, but the Santa Ana defense made clutch clearances to push the danger away. Santa Ana’s task didn’t get any easier when team co-captain Brian Mendez-Maravilla had to leave the game with an injury to his right ankle.

Just before the halftime break Carrillo kicked a volley shot that struck the crossbar and went out of bounds.

In the second half Santa Ana lost the midfield battle and that enabled Lakewood to keep Guerrero busy.

The Saints keeper answered the call and won the aerial battles, including a formidable save in the 59^th minute of the game by blocking a long range shot that seemed to go into his top-right corner, but the netminder pushed the shot away for a corner.

“Randy has been really improving since the season started. Especially with those aerial balls, and that was really critical today, ” said Peñaflor. We’ve really been working with him with that. We were already pretty strong in front of the goal with our back four, but now they’re all kind of meshing together with Randy. So now it’s going to be a pretty formidable backline with Randy. Everybody is now kind of in the same page now.”

After the game resumed from the injury break in the 69^th minute of play, the Lancers attack headlined by Jonathan Romero, Alberto Muñoz and Jonathan Alvarez pressed for an equalizer, but punctual clearances from the goalkeeper or defense preserved the lead for the Saints.

“They really kept us on our toes. It was a really intense second half. Even though we had to hold on for a long time, but we managed to keep it at zero,” said Guerrero “We managed to clear every ball that came into our box. It was really a team effort. The whole team came out with the win, and that’s what matters to us. Even though it’s a 1-0.”

Santa Ana will play on the road against Calabasas (9-4-3) on Tuesday.

—Fernando M. Donado, For OC Sports Zone