Coast tops Liberty on muddy field

A group of warmly dressed, intrepid fans huddled under umbrellas Saturday, Jan. 9, watching the Broncos challenge Liberty High School’s soccer team at Coast Union.

With El Niño providing steady precipitation, those valiant fans were rewarded for their endurance as the Bronco boys put on an impressive show of ball control and quality defense, beating Liberty 2-1 under sloppy, difficult conditions.

Ricky Abitia and Leonardo Martinez scored for Coast Union, and goalie Roberto Quintero snagged five saves for the Broncos.

The Broncos were in Liberty’s end of the field far more often than Liberty was on Coast Union’s side of midfield. Head coach Luis Plasencia said that continued a trend that has been true during most recent games.

“We control the ball a lot,” he said. However, he added, “We’re not able to finish and get that goal.

“A lot of the times we lose the ball near the other team’s goal. Either it’s a bad pass, or something else happens. We control the ball against other teams because we practice that; we do that so the other team doesn’t create any damage to our team.”

Plasencia, who has coached varsity soccer for nine years at Coast Union, said there have been games this season in which the Broncos have created 25 scoring opportunities, “but in those games we haven’t scored until the 25th time on the opponents’ end of the field.”

The Broncos entertained Dunn School Tuesday January 12…

This story was originally published January 13, 2016 at 9:46 AM with the headline "Coast tops Liberty on muddy field."