PHOTOS: Sunny Hills enjoys home field advantage and slips past Canyon 2-0 in playoff opener

Sunny Hills’ Justin Coen (19) is joined by teammates after Coen’s goal in the 65th minute gave the Lancers a 2-0 lead over Canyon. (Photos courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone).

It’s a temporary home, but one Sunny Hills boys soccer team has enjoyed.

“This field has been pretty good for us,” Coach Mike Schade said after his Lancers improved to 8-0 at home with a 2-0 win over Canyon in the first round of the CIF Division 3 boys soccer playoffs. 

There are home field advantages and then there are home field advantages.

To see the slide show, click on the first picture:

At Sunny Hills, for example, the boys have played soccer on a makeshift field this season while the main field undergoes renovation. There are dramatic differences between the two fields.

The regular field is level and it runs north and south. The second field has a 7-degree grade and runs east and west.

Those differences make the coin toss the quite possibly the most important moment of the match. Lose the toss and you’ll be running uphill in the second half and your goalie will be starring into a blinding sun.

Interestingly, the field had little to do with the Lancers’ victory.

The Lancers scored once uphill and once downhill. The sun, while adding drama to the second half, ultimately played no factor.

The win advanced the Lancers to a second-round game Tuesday at Santiago of Garden Grove.

The factor determining Friday’s outcome was the Lancers’ defense.

“Holy smokes,” Schade said of his defense. “Shutting down their number 7 (Kenny Ugalde) and number 9 (Kayvon Monfared) and the runs Canyon had out of the midfield … geez … our defense was awesome.”

Back in the playoffs after missing the post season for the first time in 20 seasons last year, the Lancers have had a remarkable comeback season. They are 14-3-4 on the season, 8-0 at home and have won 10 times while scoring one or two goals.

“I told the guys before the game we’ve been in a lot of one-goal games (1-0, 2-1) and that’s a tremendous amount of pressure, but they’ve always responded,” the coach said.

The Lancers scored on a breakaway goal (uphill) from Matthias Brown in the sixth minute and held off repeated challenges by Canyon until Justin Coen put one in from in front of the Canyon goal in the 65^th minute to provide some breathing room.

–Courtesy Jim McCormack, For OC Sports Zone