Boys’ Soccer: Sage breaks through

MORENO VALLEY — The idea on the Sage Hill School boys’ soccer team is that everyone contributes.

On Friday afternoon, in the biggest match of the season so far, it was two freshmen named Chase who played big roles.

Chase Munger scored the go-ahead goal in the second half. And, after the CIF Southern Section Division 6 quarterfinal playoff match at No. 4-seeded Moreno Valley finished regulation and overtime tied 2-2 and went to penalty kicks, Coach Luis Cruz called on freshman Chase Rebeil to go between the pipes for the final kick.

The move seemed unorthodox, even strange, considering the standout game that Sage junior keeper Robbie Rosoff was having. Sometimes, though, bold moves are necessary to create history.

Moreno Valley’s fifth kick-taker in the shootout blasted his shot way over the net. The Lightning players rushed the field after winning the shootout, 4-3, to upset Moreno Valley and advance to the CIF semifinals for the first time in program history.

Sage Hill (15-9), the Academy League champion, will play at top-seeded South Pasadena on Tuesday in the Division 6 semifinals. South Pasadena beat Rancho Mirage, 4-2, in another quarterfinal game.

The Lightning believe they can go all the way, and why not after upsetting the Nos. 5 and 4 teams in the division in successive matches? They’re winners of 14 in a row.

“You get into Sage freshman year, you come into the soccer program,” Sage senior center back Zach Burns said. “Every year you hear, ‘Beat St. Margaret’s, win CIF. Beat St. Margaret’s, win CIF.’ And we beat St. Margaret’s, and we’re two games away from winning CIF. Honestly, it’s surreal at the moment. We’re going to stay focused on the next two games, but honestly it’s the best feeling in the world.”

Sage shot first in the shootout, and seniors Nikolai Sadeghi, Dino Romeo, Anthony Gil and Juan Rodriguez all made their penalty kicks. Cesar Becerra, Jacob Barron and Ivan Joya connected for Moreno Valley (14-4-3).

Burns was the one who missed for Sage in the second round, as his shot grazed the bottom of the crossbar and went out. But Rosoff, who made 15 big saves in regulation and overtime, came up with a stop on the Vikings’ next attempt.

“I loved that kid at that point,” Burns said. “He saved my [behind]. I am very happy.”

Sage Hill took a 4-3 lead in the shootout fifth round after Rodriguez converted his chance. It was then that Cruz inserted the freshman Rebeil for Rosoff, another adjustment in a season of many of them for the first-year coach.

Rebeil shook the Moreno Valley player’s hand before bouncing around in the goal. He didn’t have to make the stop when the shot went high.

“Chase is a fantastic PK stopper,” Cruz said. “The PKs are a mind game really. It’s more of a mind game than skill, when it comes to PKs. I think the more the keeper can do to the player mentally, the better odds they have. We were going to make the change at about the fourth or the fifth [kick]. We just needed the results from our end.”

The result seemed in hand late in the match for the Lightning, even after Moreno Valley took a 1-0 halftime lead as Luis Hernandez Juarez scored just before the half. Sadeghi tied the score in the 52nd minute, scoring on a penalty kick after Milad Rohani was fouled from behind in the box.

Sage took a 2-1 lead eight minutes later. Romeo’s corner kick went long, finding Gabriel Gamboa in the upper-right corner of the box. Gamboa volleyed it back in, where Munger finished it off.

The Lightning tried to hold on, minutes away from history, but a late hand ball in the box created a golden opportunity late in the half for the hosts. Becerra put away the penalty kick in the 78th minute. The game would go to two 10-minute overtimes, after a delay when Moreno Valley sophomore Adrian Macias suffered a head injury late in regulation. Macias, who had a neck brace put on and remained conscious, was taken off on a stretcher in an ambulance.

Both teams had to regroup in the overtime periods, Sage after allowing the late goal and Moreno Valley after losing a teammate.

“The ball took an unlucky bounce, and unfortunately we got an unlucky call in the box,” Burns said. “But I had no doubt in my mind that our team would be able to rally and stay in that game. We could have just as easily put our tail between our legs and crawled up into a shell and lost that game. We could have been in the position that they’re in right now. So I’m very proud of our guys … I think we played better after that, honestly. We got more fire in us.”

Sage again thought it had the game won in the second overtime on Miles Wilson’s goal, but offside was called by the referee as the Lightning already were storming the field. One Sage defender was so upset at the call, he was red-carded.

In the end, however, the Lightning’s goalies came up big in the shootout.

“[Rosoff] was crucial, right?” Moreno Valley Coach Phillip Peeples said. “He was crucial. Their keeper came to play today.”

So did the rest of the Lightning for their first-year coach, who shrugged off the question when asked what it meant to make the semifinals for a program that had previously lost in the quarterfinals in 2008-09 and 2009-10.

“It’s another game,” Cruz said. “I’m not surprised because we have a special group of players. It doesn’t surprise me. If we were to win it all, I think it would be well-deserved. If we don’t, I’m sure we wouldn’t win it because of another good team that would knock us out.”

To get to the finals, the Lightning will need to beat another seeded team. But Cruz believes his players will be ready.

“It’s kind of nice to be the underdog,” he said.