Breakers return to soccer field today

Mike Sciacca

A 6-1-1 start to any season would turn most people’s heads, make the

opposition take notice.

Such a start to the 2004-05 boys’ soccer season has done just that

for Laguna Beach High, and it even has drawn praise and kudos from

its first-year head coach, Giovanni Vlahos.

“I’m so proud of the way the boys have come into their own this

year,” Vlahos said. “At first they never had pride in themselves or

the soccer program, but after understanding that they can hang with

the best of the best, they have that glimmer in their eye.

“But now, the true test comes around. It’s all about league play

so whatever we did in nonleague action, can be tossed out the

window.”

In essence, Vlahos is saying that while his Breakers can draw

confidence from that fast start, how they perform over the next two

months will dictate the overall success of the season.

The nonleague schedule now a thing of the past, Laguna opens the

Pacific Coast League race today at home against Northwood.

Match time is 6:15 p.m. at Guyer Field.

The Breakers have had a long break from action: they last took the

playing field on Dec. 21, a scoreless tie in a nonleague match

against San Clemente.

“I’m really not sure if the layoff over the break is a good thing,

since players were injured and exhausted, or a bad thing, since we

were on a roll with a six game unbeaten streak going,” Vlahos said.

“We’ll see on Friday, I guess.”

Since Vlahos is new to the Pacific Coast League scene -- he makes

his league debut today -- he isn’t sure on how to handicap the league

race.

Maybe it’s a good thing.

“I’m really new to this whole area, so I’m not sure who the ‘so-

called’ experts are picking to win it all,” he said. “All I can say

is that I know my boys and if they play the way I know they can, we

can challenge anybody for that top spot.

“I don’t know any of the teams. Never seen them play and truth be

told, ignorance is bliss for me because we were supposed to get

shelled by teams like San Clemente, and we pulled off a 0-0 tie with

them. I think we can honestly hang with anybody if we play our game.”

Following a rough start this season, with a new coach trying to

bring a new team into a new system, Vlahos and the Breakers are

finding their stride.

They only hope they can keep the momentum they had until the

holiday break took them aware from the action.

“As for my expectations, the start was hard on me because they

weren’t picking up my system well, but after the first couple of

games, they’ve gone over my bar on what I expected this early into

the season,” Vlahos said.

“For us to be just as successful as we have been thus far, we have

to work as hard as we have been. I mentioned this to the team at

Monday’s practice and my midfielder, Clark Olson, blurted out,

‘harder.’ That’s what we have here, a group of guys who are keeping

their eye on the prize. If they follow that mentality that hopefully

I’m getting across to them, they will have success. Win or lose, they

will know that they have left their hearts and soul on that pitch and

that’s all I could ever ask of them.”