ORANGE — The Trinity League boys soccer game between Mater Dei and Orange Lutheran on Wednesday was no different than most games in a highly competitive league that is loaded with talent.
The Monarchs and Lancers, ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, in Orange County, played an extremely physical game, where players went down in obvious pain but got right back up and returned to the action.
Both teams also had a loyal fan base that expressed itself emphatically throughout the contest.
But this game, which ended in a 1-1 tie, was also a bit unconventional, as both goals were scored on penalty kicks in the final minutes.
The game was scoreless in the 70th minute when Mater Dei forward Santiago Schelotto was fouled in the box and the undefeated Monarchs were awarded a penalty kick.
James Obleda scored on the penalty kick to give the first-place Monarchs (10-0-2, 4-0-2) a 1-0 lead and seemingly the victory.
But with about two minutes remaining, Orange Lutheran’s Santi Limon was fouled close to the goal, giving the Lancers a penalty kick.
Noah Jacoby then scored on the penalty kick, enabling the Lancers to escape with a tie.
Servite remains in second place after it defeated Santa Margarita 4-2 on Wednesday.
The tie winds up being huge for the Lancers (8-2-2, 3-2-1), who stayed within range of the two teams ahead of them.
“Two really good teams,” Orange Lutheran coach Mike Oseguera said of the game against Mater Dei. “You know, it’s always going to be a game of inches and it came down to a couple of calls. Both teams are really good. We wanted to obviously get the (victory), but at the same time to show resiliency, our boys kept their head and came down and got a tying goal. We’ve been stressing character and resiliency, and they showed that tonight, so I was very proud of their effort.”
The tie is the second in a row for the Monarchs, who finished in a 2-2 tie with St. John Bosco on Friday, Jan. 16.
“I thought our boys worked really hard,” Mater Dei coach Sean Ganey said. “We ask our boys to be disciplined and work hard and we talked about controlling emotions and I thought we did that for the most part.”
“Orange Lutheran does a great job,” the coach added. “They’ve really battled to get where they are, so credit to them. They fought a hard game. This is the beautiful thing about high school soccer. It’s like you’re playing for something and it means something.”