Mater Dei, Edison Share Title

Edison and Mater Dei recorded school milestones Saturday morning, but neither side was too tickled about it.

The teams played to an anticlimactic 0-0 tie in the Southern Section Division II boys’ soccer final at Cal State Fullerton.

Section rules stipulate that there are no tiebreakers in finals, so there were long faces on both sides when they were declared co-champions.

It was the fourth soccer title for the Monarchs (27-5-2), who won outright in 1994 and ’97 and shared a title in 1987. It was the second time this school year that a Monarch team shared a section title. That’s a first, according to Mater Dei Principal Patrick Murphy. In December, Mater Dei shared the Division I football title with Long Beach Poly.

Edison (19-4-3), making only its second appearance in a soccer final, got its first boys’ title and the school’s first soccer crown since 1986 when the girls’ team shared a Division 4-A title with Mission Viejo.

After it was over, Edison players huddled quietly against a block wall, well out of sight of the 300 or so spectators.

“I thought we controlled the second half and if we had another five minutes we would have won,” first-year Charger Coach Dave Smart said.

But after 80 minutes of play under threatening skies, which team really had control of a match that often looked like a game of kickball?

Monarch Coach Martin Stringer called the match even. “They had their chances and we had ours,” he said. “The heavy field drained our legs, particularly in the second half. I’m happy to accept a draw.”

But Mater Dei defender Rawlston Masaniai felt Edison had the advantage.

“They won all the first and second balls,” Masaniai said. The Monarchs, as they have all season, started out strong, testing Edison goalkeeper B.J. Hickie twice in the first 45 seconds by attacking the goal box.

Although Mater Dei outshot the Chargers, 8-2, in the first half, none of Hickie’s five saves were too tricky, and Edison earned two corner kicks and had a 9-1 shot advantage in the second half.

“We’ve always been slow starters,” Smart said.

Mater Dei sophomore goalkeeper Nate Pena, who got his first start with two games left in the regular season after an injury to senior Radames Lafaurie, kept the Monarchs in the game.

Charger midfielder Devin Kato put a shot to the left of the goal in the 68th minute, and five minutes later his cross from the right got to teammate Eric Blaska in front of the box. He blasted a shot at Pena, who made a diving save.

A free kick from 30 yards five minutes later netted nothing for Edison, but then Pena had to come up with another of his six second-half saves when Blaska fed midfielder Joshua Finestone for a shot.

“I thought we had more opportunities today,” Kato said. “They sat back and counterattacked and in the end we threw everything we had at them. We had our opportunities but we just didn’t get the break we needed.”