The562’s coverage of Lakewood Athletics is sponsored by J.P. Crawford, Class of 2013.
Lakewood won’t have to travel far on Saturday for its CIF Southern Section Boys’ Soccer Division 4 championship against Etiwanda at Veterans Memorial Stadium. However, the playing surface will be much different than John Ford Stadium.
The old turf field at Vets is much wider than the one on Lakewood’s campus and that means coach Alex Diaz will need to slightly adjust his team’s super aggressive approach that’s led to three straight playoff wins at home.
Round One: Lakewood 2, Rubidoux 1 (OT)
Round Two: Lakewood 2, Victor Valley 1
Quarterfinal: Lakewood 2, Knight 0
Semifinal: Lakewood 1, Savanna 0
Final: Lakewood vs. Etiwanda, Veterans Memorial Stadium, Saturday 3:30 p.m.
“We’re going to have to be patient,” said Diaz. “We can’t get desperate trying to go forward, especially at Veterans Stadium. It’s a humongous field. We’re going to have to stretch them and keep the ball and be patient and make them chase. It’s a different approach, but it’s the same thing as far as force them to weak points and then we go from there.”
This is the first CIF championship appearance for Lakewood since 1985 when the Lancers beat San Gabriel 2-1 for the Division 3-A title.
“Hopefully all of Long Beach can come out to support us because this is big for Long Beach and Lakewood,” added Diaz.
Etiwanda (19-4-3) is the undefeated champion out of the Baseline League and has only allowed 16 goals this season. The Eagles have won their four playoff games by a combined score of 8-1. Paramount was the only team to score against Etiwanda in the semifinals.
The Eagles want to absorb pressure and then counter with elite pace up top, so Lakewood will have to keep numbers underneath the ball as it presses. The Lancers also have to prevent set pieces where Etiwanda is very dangerous. Lakewood’s backline captained by center back Diego Perez has also been solid with only two postseason goals allowed.
Lakewood (15-3-6) has relied heavily on the offense of Michael Gutierrez and his five goals in four postseason games.
