Trabuco Hills Beats Saddleback on a Rebound

Sophomore Eric Gordon scored on a rebound of his own miss in the 10th minute of sudden-death overtime to give Trabuco Hills a 1-0 victory over second-ranked Saddleback Tuesday night in the semifinals of the Mustang Invitational boys’ soccer tournament.

The unranked Mustangs (9-4-2) will face undefeated Woodbridge tonight in the final of their tournament.

Gordon, who began the season with the junior varsity, took a crossing pass from Peter Padayachee and headed the ball toward Saddleback goalkeeper Noe Arreola, who easily stopped the shot but couldn’t control it. The ball bounced directly back to Gordon, who headed the rebound to the left of Arreola and into the net.

“The kids were giving him a hard time about it, but he saved our butts a lot of the game,” Saddleback Coach Mel Silva said. “His first save was just a reaction. He didn’t have time on the second one.”

Silva acknowledged that his team was fortunate to force overtime.

“We were lucky,” said Silva, whose team advanced to the quarterfinals with a 2-0 victory over Capistrano Valley. “Capo just killed us in the morning [quarterfinals]. They were super physical, and we had a tough one [Monday] against Mission Viejo. Trabuco Hills really goes out and runs you down, and they have good size. We were tired.”

Trabuco Hills, which advanced to the semifinals with a 3-1 victory over Aliso Niguel, dominated most of the way. It outshot Saddleback (11-2-3), 17-7, and had a goal nullified in the second half because of an offsides penalty.

“It’s about time we won one of these,” Trabuco Hills Coach Brian Fallman said. “We’d been losing these kind of games.”

The Mustangs have played the entire tournament without defender Scot Thompson, who is in Chula Vista at the U.S. national team training camp. Thompson will not rejoin the team until the league season begins in early January.

“The kids have stepped up and covered for each other without Scot here,” Fallman said. “This tournament has helped us come together as a team.”