The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
Draws usually feel like a loss or a win, but Lakewood and Wilson got a little taste of both reactions during their 2-2 Moore League boys’ soccer draw on Monday night at Long Beach City College’s Veterans Memorial Stadium.
The game was moved to the old famous LBCC stadium because of a stadium lights issue at Lakewood High’s newly renovated John Ford Stadium. The Lancers took advantage of the wet turf and took a 2-0 lead, but Wilson sured up its defense and equalized with a pair of set pieces.
Wilson and Millikan are now tied atop the Moore League standings with 19 points but the Rams have a game in hand. Lakewood is alone in third place with 18 points. There are two weeks left in the regular season.
The reason why it feels like a loss for both teams is that we’re watching other teams in the league and we’re just trying to catch them and there’s not a lot of games left.
“The reason why it feels like a loss for both teams is that we’re watching other teams in the league and we’re just trying to catch them and there’s not a lot of games left,” Wilson coach CJ Brewer said.
Lakewood took an early lead by spying long through balls though the open channels created by their aggressive and superior pace.
Wilson responded with a pair of set piece goals to equalize before both teams traded near chances to take all of the points late in the second half.
“We got two comfortable with the 2-0 lead and got away from what we do,” Lakewood coach Alex Diaz said. “Credit to them they put us under pressure. They look for set pieces, they got two good set pieces and put them away. We just didn’t finish the game off.”
Lakewood outshot Wilson 12-7 thanks to an aggressive start that included two goals in the first eight minutes.
In the fourth minute, Jonathan Romero ran onto a long ball forward and slotted home the opening goal.
“His work ethic is insane,” Diaz said of Romero. “He may not be scoring a lot of goals for us, but when it matters he comes through. He does a lot during work for us and anywhere I put him he is going to succeed.”
Four minutes later on a very similar looking play to the right side of the Wilson goal, Jonny Garcia chipped the ball behind the Bruins back line for Alan Gonzalez to run onto and finish.
“I wasn’t expecting it because I never really get the balls in the air,” said the diminutive Gonzalez “I just relied on my forwards to get it to me and I predicted that he was going to win it because I trust him.”
“He may be the smallest guy on the field but he also may be the most intelligent guy on the field,” Diaz added about Gonzalez. “He’s a good leader for us, was a big impact today and has been a big impact this whole year.”
Wilson used its superior height at quality service to get dangerous set pieces and capitalize. In the 37th minute, a foul near the corner flag gave Bruins defender Miles Fraizer a chance to send a quality ball into the Lakewood goal mouth. Luke Garza charged the cross, played it down with his chest and finished with his second touch off the half volley.
Fraizer then scored on a set piece in the opening minutes of the second half. He teed it up from about 30 yards out and lofted it high into the far side netting.
“I was going for goal,” Frazier said. “I saw that the keeper was kind of shorter so I was trying to hit it up against the lights so he couldn’t see it. Our game plan was to hit it high on free kicks so the goalie couldn’t really see it.”
Both teams had a handful of chances in the final half hour to net the game-winner but most of those shots narrowly missed their target.
“They were able to exploit some mismatches in personnel,” Brewer said. “As soon as we were able to fix that it calmed everything down and then we were able to go forward. We were playing chess there in the beginning. Once we figured out the moves they were making we were able to go out and score.”
On Wednesday, Wilson will host Long Beach Poly, and then Lakewood will be in action Friday when they host Cabrillo. The Bruins and Millikan Rams are also set up for a first-place showdown on Friday.
