San Clemente takes control early in CIF SoCal regional victory over Poway

San Clemente players celebrate after a CIF Regional playoff victory Tuesday. (Photos courtesy San Clemente Athletics).

San Clemente High School’s boys soccer team, which won the CIF Division 2 championship Saturday, embarked on another mission Tuesday evening.

The Tritons opened the CIF SoCal Division II Regionals and defeated Poway 3-1 in front of a big home crowd in its on-campus facility, Thalassa Stadium.

“The boys had a huge support after three away games in CIF (playoffs) and scored two goals in the first five minutes against Poway in state first round and then senior Andrew Drabkin scored a 25 yard volley to make it 3-0 before halftime,” said Tritons Coach Chris Murray.

“This was Drabkins second goal and Coast Guard commit Kai Trager also scored, Ryan Goodwin had two assists and Mason Scoffield also had an assist.”

The coach said Poway played a strong second half and scored with about five minutes remaining.

Murray was pleased to see so many fans attend the match.

“Crowd estimated to be around 1,000 which is great for a high school soccer game, even the Mayor of San Clemente (Chris Duncan) was there to support,” he said.

No. 2-seeded San Clemente moves on to the semifinals Thursday at 5 p.m. at home vs. El Camino Real from the Los Angeles City Section.

The regional finals are Saturday, March 2. No. 4 Santa Maria plays at No. 1 San Pascual in the other semifinal.

(Click on photo for full view)

A big crowd came out Tuesday to cheer on the San Clemente soccer team.

RELATED:

 —Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com