Date: December 2, 2009
Time: 8pm
Score: Cathedral High School 1-0 Notre Dame Sherman Oaks
Weather: 54 degrees in Downtown Los Angeles
A well disputed game between Notre Dame Sherman Oaks (NDSO) and Cathedral. NDSO started the game pressing the full field and committing hard fouls to take control of the game's tempo. NDSO was strong, fast and their main forward was at least 6'4. Both teams were fighting difficult battles; however Edwin Corona (Cathedral Midfield-sophomore) was fouled and while on the ground was stepped on. The Phantom line of defense, led by Steve Pacheco, was tough to beat. Ben, Vidrio, Jose and a freshman keeper Brian did a great job staying composed. This resulted with Cathedral quickly fighting back and winning the 50/50 battle.
Midfield transition led by Edwin Corona and Edwin Sanchez started connecting passes and creating opportunities by switching the point of attack and getting behind the defense through outside midfielders Kevin D.and Chris Aguinaga.
Slowly, Cathedral began to dominate opportunities to goal, but Daniel Garcia and Luis Portillo were unable to finish and penetrate the NDSO net. Cathedral had much better opportunities and in several cases were extremely close to go up and take the lead. Soon after another scoring opportunity was almost finished by freshman Arturo Lopez the half ended in a tie.
The second half began with much more intensity and after some adjustments by both coaches the game began to open up. Soon the game began to shift and Cathedral's half time adjustments were paying off. Freshman Kevin Jardines had two more scoring chances. Edwin Corona had a couple that were disrupted by unsanctioned fouls. Cathedral kept pursuing the goal and there were only a couple minutes on the clock.
NDSO was banking on the counter attack and set pieces around the box to take a lead. Neither worked due to a strong and composed Phantom defense, but NDSO was close hitting the cross bar in one instance. Finally when the game seemed to finish in a tie with only one minute left, Cathedral was awarded a free kick five yards outside the eighteen yard box. With a disguised play, Edwin Sanchez was able to bend the ball in to the opposite post. NDSO's goal keeper got a hand to deflect the ball, but the ball rolled by and hit the side of the net. Cathedral Phantoms win in last minute to go 2-0 in season.
~ PhantomSoccer