HIGH SCHOOL SOCCER SOUTHERN SECTION DIVISION V FINAL : Santa Paula’s Jauregui Has Answer for Calabasas

It took only one minute for Santa Paula to go from the depths to the heights against Calabasas during Friday’s Southern Section Division V boys’ soccer championship match at Gahr High in Cerritos.

With his team trailing, 1-0, after Shayne Ferber scored for Calabasas at 30:27 on a pass from Bhrett Haessig, Joseph Jauregui energized Santa Paula with a curving corner kick that deflected into the net and sparked the Cardinals to a 2-1 victory.

“I was trying to center it,” Jauregui said. “I was lucky to get some spin on it and it went in.”

A team in despair after Ferber’s goal, Santa Paula’s hopes soared after Jauregui’s score.

“It woke us up when Calabasas scored on us,” said Santa Paula midfielder Albert Perez, who tallied the Cardinals’ second goal. “And when (Jauregui) scored, it made us realize we could win.”

Calabasas, meanwhile, went from a team playing with confidence to one that was in disarray against an opponent it had beaten twice in Frontier League play.

“The fact they scored on us so quickly and so easily after we had scored shocked us,” Calabasas Coach John Reich said. “The minute they scored, it was like a balloon deflating.”

The strain showed most on the Calabasas defense. Perez barely got a foot on his game-winning goal at 47:53, toe-kicking the ball through traffic from about 10 yards out, but the play was set up when the Coyote fullback line failed to clear the ball on a scramble in the penalty area.

That was all Santa Paula (17-8-3) needed as goalie Guillermo Alvarado turned Calabasas (16-5-2) away the rest of the game.