Esperanza Beats Barons for Share of League Title

Fountain Valley played well without leading scorers Ryan Futagaki and Nick Tolman, but the Barons couldn’t get the ball past Esperanza goalkeeper Nate Fiske in a 1-0 loss Friday in a game that decided the Sunset League boys’ soccer title.

The Barons (16-6-1, 7-3), who needed at least a tie to win the title outright, will split the Sunset League championship with Esperanza (16-6-1, 7-3) for the second consecutive year. But 10th-ranked Esperanza will go to the playoffs as the Sunset League’s No. 1-seeded team because it swept the season series from No. 5 Fountain Valley.

Futagaki was in Florida training with the under-20 national team and Tolman was given a red card in the Barons’ previous game and had to sit out one game.

“I’m disappointed that we won’t be going to the playoffs as the No. 1 seed, but I feel good about the way we played without 80% of our offense,” Fountain Valley Coach Kevin Smith said. “Other than a 15-minute stretch in the first half, I thought we had the best of it.”

Scott Mitchell broke the tie with 20 minutes remaining when he took a deflected crossing pass from Ryan Deschenes and right-footed the ball across the goal. Fountain Valley goalkeeper Peter Fatzaun dove to his left and tipped the ball, but he couldn’t knock it out of net.

“I just took my time with it,” Mitchell said. “I actually thought he was going to get it, but he happened to be leaning the wrong way. I can’t say I actually planned it that way.”

But Mitchell said he did plan on winning Friday’s game.

“The last 40 minutes of that game was our entire season,” Mitchell said. “They knocked us out of the playoffs last year and we wanted to get them back for that. I thought we played our hearts out.”