Dons dumped by the Irish

Tuesday night was one of those growing-pains games as the Dons hosted San Francisco’s Sacred Heart Cathedral. In the years leading up to the pandemic season of 2020-21, the Irish won CCS titles in 2016, 2018 and 2019.

And being a member of the rugged West Catholic Athletic League, Arevalos knew his team was in for a stern test. While the Dons certainly were not overwhelmed by the Irish, SHC still came away with a 2-0 win in San Mateo.

“Tough game. Good opponent,” said Arevalos, whose team is already 2-0 in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play.

“We can’t have an easy game, non-league.”

The good news playing a team like SHC (2-1 overall) was that the Irish exposed the weaknesses and showed Aragon (3-3) what it like to take step up in competition.

In the first half, it was all Irish as the Dons’ midfield was non-existent. SHC played the ball backward consistently, but Aragon made it way too easy for the Irish to easily play the ball forward with little defensive resistance.

That emboldened the Irish to go right at the Aragon defense, and to the Dons’ credit, they withstood the pressure relatively well, especially considering they were started Ethan Dreblow in goal — a freshman seeing not only his first varsity start, but seeing his first-ever varsity action, period.

And other than a couple passive plays, Dreblow was up to the task. He got tested right away when Cruz Tengco got a shot off from the top of the box that Dreblow, with a full-out dive, managed to push the shot just wide right to set up the first of nine corner kicks for SHC.

Because the Dons could not manage to maintain possession, the Irish were constantly buzzing around in the Aragon end, but the Dons defense did a good job of keeping the Irish shot chances from the perimeter.

“[SHC was] more organized. They wanted it more (in the first half),” Arevalos said. “Our midfield wasn’t adjusting correctly. … When the midfield is not in the right spot, it’s like opening a gate.”

The Irish managed to get seven shots off in the first 40 minutes, five of them goal, with Dreblow making four saves.

But it seemed inevitable the Irish would score and they finally did in the 31st minute on a perfectly executed counterattack. Cole Imrey broke into the penalty on an inside overlapping through ball and then beat Dreblow to the short side to put SHC up 1-0 at halftime.

In the second half, the Dons played much better, in the midfield especially. Using a high press on the SHC defensive line, the Dons made it tougher for the Irish to play out of their own end and started challenging for the ball near midfield, as opposed to the final third in the first half.

It resulted in a few more offensive chances for the Dons in the final 40 minutes, after not mounting much of a threat in the opening half. In the opening minutes of the second half, Anthony Song tried to get loose down the right flank, but was run off the ball. Center forward Ryan Kurinskas had dangerous run right through the heart of the SHC defense, but the through ball was scooped up the goalkeeper just ahead of Kurinskas’ charge.

The Aragon defense, meanwhile, tightened up in the second half as the Irish managed five shots, only two of which were on frame.

And of those two, they put one away. But not before Dreblow made the save of the game in the 68th minute when he leapt high to push a rocket of a shot over the crossbar. But three minutes later, he was hopeless against Ryan Scott’s blast from 45 yards out along the left side, finding the far, upper left corner of the net to all but ice the game.

“The second half was a 50-50 half,” Arevalos said. “The second half, [we] came to play.”