Penalty kicks do in Newport Harbor

MISSION VIEJO — With the ball spinning toward the back of the net, both soccer teams stormed toward the penalty box.

One team wanted to celebrate with the player booting in the clinching penalty kick. The other team wanted to make sure the player responsible for forcing a scoreless match into penalties received credit.

For 60 minutes of the 100-minute match, Newport Harbor High goalkeeper Nathan Freiberg stood in the way of unbeaten Santa Ana, punching back shot after shot Friday night.

But with the match moving past a 20-minute sudden death and into penalties, scorers tend to expose keepers. Santa Ana finally got close enough to Freiberg to beat him, advancing to the Mustang Champions Cup title game by winning, 4-2, in penalty kicks at Trabuco Hills High.

“When you’re in a [penalty kick] spot you try to read the player as best as you can,” Freiberg said. “The rest is a guess.”

Freiberg guessed right once, smothering a ball just to his right to give the Sailors an opportunity to come back down, 3-2, in penalties.

One more goal and Newport Harbor (6-3-2), which played conservatively on offense, could see itself beating Santa Ana (10-0-3) and qualifying for today’s title instead of playing in a third-place match.

But the Sailors were up against an All-CIF Southern Section Division III keeper in Manny Diaz. They didn’t challenge the senior during regulation and sudden death, where he made only one save.

Diaz didn’t have to try to save anything on a Newport Harbor Will Reichenstein attempt. The ball sailed over the crossbar, and Reichenstein couldn’t believe it. Maybe it had something to do with the Sailors being out of sync on offensive. They only scored one goal in their win earlier in the day against Costs Mesa. In the semifinal, they never really attacked, a strategy Santa Ana used throughout.

In the 100 minutes of action, the Saints peppered 14 shots at Freiberg and keeper Kevin Etter, who played the second half. Most came from 25 and 30 yards out. The shot that did Newport Harbor in came via a defender.

After seeing the Sailors stop Santa Ana’s offense, Miguel Perez came through with his penalty shot. He slipped the ball past Freiberg’s left to end the match.

“I had a little bit of pressure on me, but I knew I could take it,” Perez said. “I was happy I could get the win for us.”

Santa Ana’s offense couldn’t penetrate deep enough to hurt Newport Harbor.

The Saints were averaging four goals per match in their first three tournament wins, which they blanked the opposition. But the Sailors hampered down, packing the defensive side with numerous players.

Each time strikers Jesus Zavala, Sam Morales and Luis Serna received passes, nearby were two or three Newport Harbor defenders. The back line, led by Kyle Rohan and Danny Gonzalez, frustrated the strikers so much that they strayed away from their sound ability to pass to an open teammate when nothing was there offensively.

Many times the strikers decided to go solo, dribbling into traffic with no luck and having the ball taken away. Four Sailors always stayed back, taking away any space to maneuver freely in the attacking zone.

Santa Ana Coach Joe Penaflor could be heard yelling for players to cross the ball, but when they did, Newport Harbor won the headers because of their height advantage.

“It’s not the best soccer we’ve ever played,” said Newport Harbor Coach Ryan Hernandez, whose team managed only four shots on goal in the 100 minutes. “No one wants to play Santa Ana. That’s a huge accomplishment for us.”

At the end, when the other team celebrated close by, the Sailors quickly acknowledged the player playing a key role in the match.