CV Shuts out El Rancho and Wins CIF Boys Soccer Championship

The Crescenta Valley boys soccer team scored two goals in the first half and went on to shut out El Rancho, 3-0, in the championship game of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs on Friday at Warren High School in Downey.

Crescenta Valley (21-0-6) won the first CIF soccer championship, for boys or girls, in school history. The Falcons will continue in playoffs in the CIF Southern California Regional. The regional playoff brackets will be released Sunday at 4 p.m.

“We all felt like we had a chance to win,” Crescenta Valley coach Grant Clark said. “We didn’t think we were going to shut them out. That wasn’t our goal.”

El Rancho came into the championship game with 79 goals as a team and averaging nearly four goals a game. But Crescenta Valley jumped out to an early lead and put El Rancho on its heels. The Crescenta Valley defense and goalie Nick Ruiz didn’t allow El Rancho many good looks on goal.

Alex Berger scored the first goal for Crescenta Valley in the first half. His shot from 50 yards out hit the crossbar and dropped inside goal line before bouncing out. The referees took a few minutes to decide whether the ball actually crossed the goal line. After a few minutes, the referees awarded Crescenta Valley the goal and a 1-0 lead.

“They did a nice job of controlling the game and let people play,” Clark said about the referees.

Eric Keshishian gave Crescenta Valley a 2-0 lead by scoring only his third goal of the season. He took a throw in and lobbed a shot toward the goal. It was a well-placed shot from an unlikely scorer.

“We had high hopes for him this season,” Clark said. “He got the goal when it counted.”

Pavle Atanackovic scored the third goal of the game in the second half. It was his 38th goal of the season and the 99th of his high school career. Both are school records.

“It was nice to get the lead early and that’s what we wanted to do,” Clark said. “We watched a lot of film on El Rancho. In the back of my mind, I was a little bit nervous. If we got the first goal, how would we respond to that.”

Ruiz had five saves in goal for Crescenta Valley. He recorded the 14th shutout of the season and the second in the playoffs. Clark said that his defenders responded well to playing with an early lead and that his entire team didn’t make any mistakes.

“They carried that out to a tee,” Clark said. “Nobody had a bad game.”

El Rancho (21-1), the top-seeded team in the Division 4 playoffs, lost for the first time this season. The Dons won the Del Rio League championship with a 10-0 record and had a 21-game winning streak.

Crescenta Valley has a 34-match unbeaten streak. The last time the Falcons lost was to El Rancho in the quarterfinals of the 2011 CIF playoffs.