Boys soccer: Strong first half leads Ottawa past La Salle-Peru 2-1

OTTAWA – Midway through the first half of Thursday’s Interstate 8 Conference boys soccer match on the King Field pitch, Ottawa’s Evan Snook began to take the ball up the left sideline in the offensive third against the La Salle-Peru defense.

Teammate Jorge Lopez knew exactly where he needed to go.

“When I saw Evan with the ball dribbling down the sideline, all I wanted to do was sprint straight toward the [weak side] post,” Lopez said. “I knew Evan was going to cross the ball somewhere in front of the goal, and I wanted to make sure I was there when he did.”

Indeed, Snook sent a crossing pass across the box, and Lopez was there to one-time it into the net to give the Pirates the early lead in a 2-1 victory over the Cavaliers.

“When Evan has the ball like he did on that play, I feel like I run even harder to get into an open spot because I know he’s going to pass the ball to an open spot,” Lopez said. “He knows I’m going to be there. He did on that play, and I’m happy I was there to kick it in.”

Ottawa (4-0) increased its lead to 2-0 with just under two minutes to play in the first half when Alexio Fernandez’s initial 15-yard shot from the left was saved by L-P keeper Abraham Garcia (five saves), but Rory Moore punched in a rebound of his own stopped shot at the goal mouth.

“I was really happy with how we controlled the ball in the first half,” Ottawa coach Kevin Olesen said. “The guys were making solid passes and doing a good job of finding feet in open space. We still have things we need to improve on, but tonight was a pretty solid effort.

“La Salle-Peru really came out in the second half and dialed up their intensity and really put pressure on us. I feel like we did a great job of absorbing the pressure and just kept finding ways to keep them from tying the match. I thought we finally started to match their push with 15 minutes or so to go and played even ball possession wise until the end.”

The Cavaliers, who held a 19-8 advantage in total shots, including 12-7 on net, cut the disadvantage to 2-1 six minutes into the second half.

Ismael Mejia stole the ball in the midfield, then turned and sent a lead pass in the direction of a streaking Adan Pantoja. Pantoja was able to outrun an Ottawa defender for the ball, and at the last second as Ottawa keeper Connor Diederich was rushing out to cut down the angle, chip the ball into the low right corner of the net.

With 24 minutes remaining, Diederich (11 saves) kept his team in the lead with a brilliant point-blank save, as well as the rebound shot.

L-P had one more good chance with less than a minute to play, but the Cavs’ corner kick grazed the crossbar and was cleared away by the Ottawa defense.

“The first half we didn’t play up to the potential we have, and then the second half was the complete opposite,” said L-P coach David Spudic, whose team fell to 2-2 on the season. “It’s early in the season, so we are still trying to find consistency throughout an entire match and not just one half or the other, or for stretches here and there.

“We’ve been working and practicing for the last two months counting the summer contact days on turf. So we are still trying to adjust to playing on grass. We just have to realize that we have to pass the ball harder when we’re not playing on turf. Unfortunately, tonight it took us too long to figure that out.”

La Salle-Peru is back in action Friday in its home opener against Plano. Ottawa returns to the pitch Saturday hosting Sterling.