Soccer rivals play to scoreless tie

Beaumont and San Jacinto were two evenly matched teams during Wednesday’s Mountain Pass League boys’ soccer game.

It wouldn’t have been as even if the host Cougars had been at full strength.

Instead, the rivals settled for a scoreless tie.

“I thought it was a fair result,” Beaumont coach Barry Steele said. “I thought it could have gone either way. It was a fair result for a game between number one and number two in the league.”

The result may have been more satisfying to Beaumont had two of its top players suited up. But the team’s leading scorer, Jake Jones, was enrolling in the Marines and team captain Fernando Soto was out with a hamstring injury.

They are impact players, but the Beaumont coach offered no excuses.

“It could have been different but our mentality was the same,” Steele said. “We have a system and we play within that system regardless of who we have.”

With or without those players, both teams expected a battle.

Six of the last 12 games between these two teams have been decided by one goal. Five of those 12 games have resulted in ties.

And Beaumont’s 1-0 win over San Jacinto at the start of the league season arrived with a goal at the 80th minute.

“With a game with Beaumont, we knew it would be a good game because of the rivalry,” San Jacinto coach David Kubatsu said. “It is always a great matchup.”

Beaumont (10-4-4, 4-2-1) remained in second place in the league standings. San Jacinto (10-3-6, 4-1-2) held onto the top spot.

Beaumont nearly pulled it off. The Cougars finished the game with 16 shots on goal, but only a handful of those were legitimate goal opportunities.

“It’s a bit disappointing because we were at home,” Steele said. “We do really well at home. Not disappointed in the result, just in the fact that we couldn’t get one in.”

It was a solid effort, considering the circumstances.

“If you have a clean sheet against the first place team, and you didn’t get scored on, that means you played well,” Steele said. “We did our job but we didn’t get the one goal.”

San Jacinto played strong in stretches. The Tigers had 14 shots on goal in the first half but only three in the second half.

“Unfortunately we were a little up and down,” Kubatsu said. “We turn it up for 20 minutes and then we drop back into a lull.”

Beaumont completes the regular season against visiting Hemet on Friday, at Tahquitz next Wednesday and at West Valley next Friday. San Jacinto plays at Citrus Hill, which hasn’t lost at home yet.

“It’s going to be tough for both sides,” Steele said. “We are right behind them. I think both teams will feel the pressure. If one of us had won, I think that team would be up and been able to seal the deal.”

Editor's note: Check back later this afternoon for more shots of the Beaumont vs. San Jacinto game.