FULERTON >> With the Freeway League title on the line, the Fullerton boys soccer team capped a recent streak of dominant performances with a 3-0 victory over Sunny Hills in the league finale Wednesday at Fullerton High School.
Senior Misael Gonzalez-Lopez had two goals and an assist to lead the Indians’ attack.
Fullerton (16-3-1, 9-1) and Sunny Hills (13-3-4, 9-1) finish the regular season with identical league records and in a first-place tie since they went 1-1 against each other in head-to-head contests.
Both teams will enter the CIF Southern Section playoffs as first-place teams, with the Indians playing in the Division 1 playoffs and the Lancers playing in Division 3.
The Sunny Hills boys soccer team finished as co-champs of the Freeway League with a loss to Fullerton 3-0 on Wednesday, Feb. 2. (Photo courtesy of Lou Ponsi, Contributor)
The Indians went 5-0 in the second round of league play, scoring a total of 23 goals and winning every game by shutout during the stretch.
Fullerton’s last defeat was against the Lancers by a score of 2-1 on Jan. 19.
“I think what happened was our last game in the first round was against Sunny Hills,” Fullerton coach George Shumaker said. “The boys were mad because they thought it wasn’t a great game and the boys vowed that we were going to shut teams out the second round, which we did.”
The Indians’ first two goals came 90 seconds apart in the first half.
Gonzalez-Lopez dribbled about 30 yards along the left sideline with a defender at his side, getting in front of the defender just enough to get off a clean shot into the goal.
Fullerton’s Misael Gonzalez-Lopez scored two goals and had an assists in a 3-0 victory over Sunny Hills that gave the Indians a share of the Freeway League title. (Photo by Lou Ponsi, Contributor)
The second goal came during a scramble for the ball in front of the goal, with Gonzalez-Lopez sending a short cross pass to Kenneth Flores, who made the short kick into the goal.
The third goal came 18 minutes into the second half when Gonzalez-Lopez took a vertical pass from Bryan Izgurra and kicked a chip shot over the keeper’s head and into the net.
“It was senior night and it was our last game together before CIF,” said Gonzalez-Lopez, who was the MVP of the Marina Tournament in December. “We just came focused and were ready.”
Fullerton has won the league title in three of the past four seasons.
Sunny Hills won league titles in six of the past eight seasons and rebounded from a fifth-place finish last season to earn a share of first place.
Eight of the Lancers’ nine league victories were by one goal.
“Every game for us was a battle,” Sunny Hills coach Mike Schade said. “These guys found a way to win nine of out 10 of them. Every game came down to us finding a way to win. Obviously, it’s not what we wanted today, but nobody has ever gone 10-0 in the Freeway League.”