FONTANA — Two teams seeking redemption following section title game losses met Tuesday, but only one of them was successful.
Anaheim defeated host Jurupa Hills 2-0 in a CIF State Division III boys soccer regional opener on a chilly, windy night.
“I told the boys that Saturday (when it lost to Warren 3-0) was an off day and we just needed to come and compete,” Anaheim coach Louis Espindola said. “We just proved today that Saturday was a fluke.”
Espindola played on Anaheim’s only section title team in 2014.
“It brings back a lot of memories and now we’re set to make history,” Espindola said.
No. 7-seeded Anaheim will meet No. 3 Bell on Thursday in the regional semifinals. In the other semifinal, No. 1 seed Harvard-Westlake meets No. 5 Warren. The title game is set for Saturday.
Anaheim got a goal from Rodrigo Estrada in stoppage time at the end of the first half and another from Eric Lopez in the 75th minute.
Jurupa Hills (17-8-4) nearly tied the game with a shot just over the goal a minute before Lopez’s goal.
“I was on the second post,” Lopez said of his goal. “We shot it and the goalie blocked it and I ran in and shot it in. It was an easy tap-in. It felt amazing.”
Estrada scored off a set piece after a corner kick.
“It was me and my teammate, Tony (Antonio Villafan),” Estrada said. “He passed it to me. I saw that the keeper was off his post. It felt good. It was my first goal in state. We’re making history for the school. We’ve never won the first round of state, so it feels good.”
Anaheim received stellar play from Miguel Carrillo, Daniel Soto, Jacob Fajardo, Manuel Maleana, Estrada and Lopez.
Jurupa Hills (17-8-4) dominated the first half and took more shots on goal but had nothing to show for it.
A Roberto Cobos shot that went wide of the net in the 23rd minute was among the close misses for Jurupa Hills, which was the third-place team from the San Andreas League.
Play tipped the way of Anaheim (11-5-8) in the second half.
“It just felt like today it wasn’t going our way,” Jurupa Hills junior Jacob Villa said. “We had a lot of shots and normally we put them away. We just couldn’t finish.”
Hector Flores, Adrian Luna, Daniel Colin, Adrian Grijalva, Michael Puentes, Mateo Soria, Moises Rodriguez, Villa, and Cobos paced the Spartans.
It was a tough way to end the season for Jurupa Hills which lost in the section final to Harvard-Westlake 1-0.
“Jurupa Hills was very organized and disciplined,” Espindola said. “They compete and they’re very physical. We knew from their game against Harvard-Westlake that there were a couple of players in the midfield that we had to stop.”
