Serra boys soccer gains revenge, blanks St. Francis 1-0

By Greg Lydon

Jan. 20, 2010

Sixty minutes into the second meeting of the year between the Serra High-San Mateo and St. Francis High-Mountain View boys soccer teams, St. Francis head coach Mike Salvemini was having a little deja-vu.

Round two between the two WCAL rivals started out very similar to the schools first meeting last month, but finished with a much more sobering result for the Lancers.

Serra junior Alex Kunkel fired off a precise scoring strike in the 11^th minute, the lone goal of the match held up as Serra blanked St. Francis 1-0 on a gloomy Wednesday afternoon at Serra High in San Mateo.

In the team's first meeting on Dec. 12, Serra struck first, but allowed three second half scores in a dizzying four minute span to fall 3-1 to the host Lancers.

“It was a very similar game to the first time,” Salvemini said. “We had a let down defensively early in the first half today and the guy made a phenomenal shot.”

With both sides playing stingy on the back end, scoring chances were limited this time around for both clubs.

Padres senior keeper Matt Grosey made a couple key saves, including a pair of nice one-handed deflections late in the first half, to shutout St. Francis and put his team into sole possession of second place in the toughest league in the Central Coast Section.

The Lancers came in to the start of the second go-round of WCAL play with a 4-1-2 league record, while Serra entered with a 5-2 league tally.

With the shutout win in hand, the Padres are now right on the heels of first place St. Ignatius.

“Ever since the first game against St. Francis, we've been focusing on our defense,” Serra head coach Jeff Panos said. “We knew coming into the season that if you want to contend for a league title, you have to go through St. Francis.”

Severe weather dotted the peninsula throughout the day, but Mother Nature held off most of the heavy showers until after the WCAL rivals match-up was all wrapped up.

Light showers came and went during the 80-minute showdown.

Although the rain wasn't really an issue, the strong winds were another story.

Serra played the first half with the wind at its back and took advantage early in the first 15 minutes of play.

Sophomore Cristobal Perla started the pressure from the Padres with a quick cross into the box in the 8^th minute.

However, the hot shot pass couldn't find a head and was cleared away.

Three minutes later, the Lancers weren't as fortunate.

Off a pretty lead pass into the middle, Kunkel beat his man to the loose ball and jetted towards the Lancers net.

Only ahead of the St. Francis defender by a half a step, Kunkel unloaded a dead eye shot from the 20-yard marker safely into the top right corner of the goal.

The best chance of the day came in the 54^th minute for St. Francis. After a free kick, a rebound shot was loose in front of the goal and kicked in by an alert Lancers forward.

However, the goal was waved off due to an off-sides call.

Serra went onto to win the game 1-0.

“It feels fantastic right now to get the win,” Grosey said. “We know we can play with anyone.”

The Lancers face off against Sacred Heart Cathedral-San Francisco on Friday in Mountain View, while the Padres return to action Saturday afternoon at Valley Christian-San Jose.