Serra closes with a dud

Valley Christian, meanwhile, was simply playing out the string. If nothing else, both teams were playing for pride.

So the last thing Serra head coach Mike Keller told his team just before they took the field was, “You’ve had a good season. We want to end on a high.”

“Didn’t go to plan,” Keller said after the Warriors came away with a 3-1 victory. “Credit to Valley. Their coach said it was one of their better games they’ve played.”

The whole vibe of the game changed during a seven-minute stretch that bridged the first and second halves. Valley (3-11 WCAL, 6-13-1) scored on a counter attack in first-half stoppage time and then scored twice in the opening seven minutes of the second half to all but take the fight out of Serra.

By the time Quincy Huang found the back of the net off a Lucas Faggiolly cross in the 57th minute for the Padres’ only goal, Keller had already made the decision to empty his bench and rest up his key players ahead of Saturday’s CCS playoff game.

The Warriors showed early on that they were not simply going to roll over after suffering a 3-1 loss to Serra (8-4-2, 12-5-3) Jan. 25. They got a cross into the Serra penalty box in the third minute and only a diving block from a Padres defender prevented a shot on goal. In the 11th minute, Valley’s Hudson Napoli cranked off a shot from 25 yards out that was saved by Serra goalkeeper Rafa Steinberger and minutes later, Napoli made a nice attacking run that was cut off.

“I don’t think we had our typical energy early on,” Keller said.

Serra, however, managed to weather the Warriors’ early pressure in the opening 15 minutes and started to take control of possession and attack. In the 16th minute, Serra’s Justin Hollister whipped a corner kick to the far right post, which Huang redirected to the front of the goal, but it was cleared away.

In the 31st minute, the Padres ran a similar play with Hollister, again, sending a corner to the far right post that found Zachary Heller, but he could not redirect his aerial one-timer on frame.

But the Padres’ best chance came in the 18th minute when Nate Coughlin got on the ball on the left flank and carried it down the sideline before cutting in on goal and sending a cross to the front of the cage.

The Valley goalkeeper completely misplayed it and Faggiolly had a sitter, running free at an empty net.

The pass was a little high, forcing Faggiolly to get airborne. He might have had time to bring it down, but instead tried to hit it on the volley and popped it over the goal.

“We didn’t converted our opportunities,” Keller did.

But Valley did, just before the halftime whistle. After Serra could not get a clean look for a shot on goal during a scramble in the Warriors’ penalty box, Valley made the Padres pay with a textbook counter.

The ball cleared to midfield where Isaac Wong got on it, making diagonal run. Two passes later, Brandon Lan was in on goal and beat Steinberger to the far right post for a 1-0 lead two minutes into stoppage time.

“Anytime you have a goal just before halftime, it affects the game,” Keller said.

The Padres still didn’t seemed recovered after the 10-minute break because it was Valley that opened the second half like it was trailing. Napoli got off a shot one minute into the second half and two minutes after that, got a cross into the penalty box.

But then it seemed like the Padres stopped playing defense. Valley defender Jack Mitchell got onto a ball just inside his own half and carried it into the attack without a Serra defender in sight.

With no pressure, Mitchell sent a long cross to the top of the Serra penalty box where he found Lan, who had time to chest the ball down into space, turn and fire off a shot to the far right corner for a 2-0 lead in the 43rd minute.

The Padres were caught watching again in the 47th minute as a long ball came over the top of the Serra defense and found the head of Napoli, who put a header on goal that foced Steinberger to parry away.

At the last second, Steinberger pushed the ball off the crossbar, but lost his balance and fell to the ground. Three Warriors crashed the goal with Wong heading home Valley’s third goal of the game.

And the Warriors didn’t take their foot off the pedal against the Padres reserves as they managed 10 shots, six on goal, in the second half. They had a chance for more, but Napoli was snakebit as he came up empty on two more scoring chances and the Serra defense headed a ball off the goal line.

Despite the loss, the Padres won’t have too long to dwell on it. Thursday is the CCS seeding meeting, with first-round games slated for Saturday.

“It’s human nature to look ahead to Saturday and not focus on this game,” Keller said.