San Clemente Blanked by Capo Valley in Summer League Semis

In losing just once in nine matches during pool play and the quarterfinals of the Capo Valley Summer League Tournament, San Clemente’s boys soccer team has been able to overcome its deficiencies on defense by scoring early and often.

But against a serious opponent with two tough goalkeepers, the Tritons were finally exposed Tuesday afternoon.

The Cougars scored twice in the first half, and forward Kevin Baboiyan added two more goals in the opening three minutes of the second half to blank San Clemente, 4-0, Wednesday in a semifinal match at Capistrano Valley High.

Capistrano Valley (7-2-1), the third seeds in the tournament, will face fifth-seeded Trabuco Hills (7-3-0) in the championship match 4 p.m. Friday at Capo Valley. The Mustangs defeated Laguna Hills, 4-2, in the other semifinal.

“You take out the first 10 or 15 minutes of the game and we looked competitive,” Cougars coach Jason Sorrell said. “We [San Clemente and Capo Valley] both lost a lot of players [to graduation]—we lost 15 players—so we’re just trying to adjust. Today we played hard and did well. I can’t explain it, but we were fired up.”

Baboiyan, who scored a goal in the Cougars’ CIF Division II Championship loss to Claremont last season, said the motivation was easy.

“They had that little stuff on their shirts,” said Baboiyan, referring to the Tritons’ hi-lighter green T-shirts with “SCHS 2011 Sectional, Regional and State Champions” splashed across the front.

San Clemente actually outshot the Cougars, 6-4, in the match, but goalies Tony Ponce and returning starter Matt Bermudez each played a half and performed well for the Cougars. Bermudez, in particular, made a couple diving saves to prevent the Tritons from getting back into the game after trailing 2-0 at halftime.

Baboiyan put the game virtually out of reach in the second half. His first goal 40 seconds in came as he turned to his right and fired a laser from about 20 yards away, the ball finding the upper right corner of the net. Two minutes later, Baboiyan scored again as he found a loose ball in front and knocked it off the goalkeeper.

“I wasn’t expecting to score like that,” Baboiyan said. “The first goal shook them up a little bit and the second goal, I was just in the right place. Except for the first 10 minutes of the game I thought we played pretty good.”

San Clemente coach Mike Pronier said that although the team fell short of its goal of reaching the final, he wasn’t displeased with the player’s performance throughout the five-week tournament. In fact, it may be a good omen. Last summer the Tritons lost to Capo Valley, 3-0, in their last summer game and went on to capture the three CIF championships during the winter season.

 “Capo came out a little inspired and played well, but the first two goals they scored were our mistakes,” Pronier said. “For us, it was about defensive organization. This summer, we have been up and down. Against the weaker teams we’ve played well, but against good teams like Capo, you can’t make mistakes and we did.

“I told the kids that we know what we need to work on [for the 2011-12 season], and that’s all I wanted. We’ve been very consistent the last six or seven years, but inexperience on defense is our weakness. We had a great tournament up to the end.”