Boys’ Soccer: Zeenni plays big role in Crespi victory

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Ryan Lannutti may have been the 74th minute hero, but Crespi goalie Omar Zeenni definitely played a key role in the Celts’ 1-0 victory. Even before the Crespi boys’ basketball team decided to do a collective cheerleader impression on the sidelines, Zeenni was stopping shots like some sort of soccer madman, especially in the first half when Nick Rihn and Nick Posthuma were peppering him constantly.

Things got a little calmer in the second half, but Zeenni slapped down a couple of big ones, including one fired at point-blank range by David Rios in the 74th minute, just before Lannutti scored. He finished with six saves.

‘We had chances to put it away, and we didn’t get it done,’ St. Francis coach Glen Appels said.

What’s really impressive with this Zeenni kid is that he’s only sophomore and he’s only given up two goals in nine league games. Just imagine how good he’s going to be once he gets a couple more years under his belt -- it’ll be like having a concrete wall with 10,000 hands in net.

And he’ll have to keep up his wall-like ways over the next three games if Crespi wants to guarantee itself a share of the league title and the Mission League’s top playoff seeding. Contests against Notre Dame and Harvard-Westlake aren’t going to be easy.

Here’s a quick interview with ‘The Wall’ himself:

Also, here’s one of those big saves I was talking about:

-- Austin Knoblauch