Burlingame, San Mateo battle to scoreless tie

"We're off to a great start (to the season)," said San Mateo coach Kurt Devlin. "The last couple of years, we lost every preseason game."

San Mateo is off to a 1-0-1 start to the 2004-05 season.

Burlingame, a contender for the Bay Division title, is still looking for its first win of the season. The Panthers lost to Capuchino last week and are without five starters for a variety of reasons.

"We have a lot of new players," said Burlingame coach Fred Cesano. "The guys who were in there gave a hard effort."

As is usually the case in early-season games, the defense is much further ahead than the offense. All defenders have to do is prevent the ball from going into the net by any means possible. There is a lot more finesse and strategy involved in generating offense.

Burlingame had the advantage in talent, by far. Gus Monteiro and Damian Gona are magicians on the ball, using fancy footwork to get out of tight spots. Dan Webb and Cameron Harris gave Burlingame speed on the flanks. Despite all the talent, the Panthers could not put it together Friday in San Mateo.

"Our touch was off. We're just out of synch," Cesano said. "There was a lot of useless touches. The passing isn't there. (We just need to) give it a little more time."

Said Devlin: "They have a lot of assets."

The San Mateo defense did a good job of making the plays when necessary. The Bearcats let Burlingame build its offense in the midfield, but once the Panthers got into the attacking third of the field, the Bearcat defenders closed down and cleared the ball away. Sweeper Andrew Cheung was all over the backline, covering for beaten fullbacks and clearing away balls when the Burlingame pass was a bit off.

San Mateo's best chance at a goal came in the first minute of the game. Roberto Martinez took a pass 25 yards away and broke in on the Burlingame goal. He held on to the ball too long, however, and could not get a shot off before the Burlingame defense collapsed on him.

Burlingame had several chances on goal, but no serious scoring threats. The Panthers got a free kick just outside the San Mateo penalty box late in the first half but the shot sailed well over the goal. In the second half, Harris nearly beat the San Mateo goalkeeper to a 50-50 ball and also drew a foul just outside the penalty area for another Burlingame shot on goal.

San Mateo, on the other hand, had a hard time generating any offense. The Burlingame defense was responsible for part of that, but the Bearcats were missing a real scoring threat.

"We lost one of our main (offensive scoring threats) to grades," Devlin said. "We're going to have to generate offense from defense."