Some great games are in store this week, ones that will play a role in determining who becomes the lead champions. This week, the Freeway and Trinity Leagues will grab most of the headlines.

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TODAY

LA HABRA VS. TROY (At La Habra High): The Warriors handed the Highlanders their first loss of the season. The Warriors' Daniel Rogers and Dyllan Setvens both scored in the 2-0 shutout for Troy. But that result came at a time when La Habra was in the midst of playing a bucnh of tournament games back-to-back, so fatigue could have been a factor.  Don't get me wrong, though, the Warriors are a solid team.They have to be pretty good to open the seaosn with nine consecutive victories.

After losing to Troy, the Highlanders were shutout by Garey, 1-0, at the North Orange County tournament, and the Gary coach told me that La Habra was one of the best teams that he has seen in some time. SInce then, the Highlanders have not allowed a goal in the three games that they have played.

FULLERTON VS. SUNNY HILLS (At Fullerton): It's true that the Marina Tournament was a bit diluted this year, lacking a lot of the talent that it had in the late 1990s, but Fullerton was definitely a worthy tournament finalist. They twice held leads on Mater Dei before the Monarchs pulled out a 3-2 victory. The Indians really dictated the tempo of the game, so Sunny Hills could be in for quite a game today. The Lancers better be ready to run. Sunny Hills is coming off a very impressive victory over Troy. Sung Moon scored the game winner for the Lancers, and of the Indians are to come out of this game with a victory, they have to find a way to control Moon, who I believe is the Lancers' biggest scoring threat.

WEDNESDAY

SADDLEBACK VS. SANTA ANA (at Saddleback): It's one of the best rivalries in boys soccer. This will be the team's first meeting this season. The Roadrunners are No. 1 once again after beating Orange, 2-1, last week in the Golden West League opener. Edward Zepeda scored his seventh goal in six games to break a 1-1 tie and help the Roadrunners remain the only undefeated team currently in the top 10.There's little debate among the county coaches that Saddleback is indeed the best team around, but don't count the Saints out of the this one.

Both Saddleback and Santa Ana play a very similar style of soccer, having spontaneous and creative midfielders which make both teams very hard to defend.

Each team is loaded with speed, too. The last time Saddleback faced a team that's similar to the Saints, they allowed three goals. Still the Roadrunners beat Santa Ana Valley that day, 5-3.

That three goal outburst by the Falcons is the most that any team has scored on Saddleback so far this season.

Even though Saddleback has been nothing short of dominant this year, outscoring its opponents, 40-8, Santa Ana coach Joe Penaflor said he doesn't feel like he's stuck playing for second place in leage.

"There are a lot of good teams in our league. Saddleback does have all those seniors and they are playing very well," Santa Ana coach Joe Penaflor said. "But you never know who is going to be that next upstart team in our league. It is going to come down to one goal here and one goal there."

JSERRA VS. MATER DEI (at JSerra): It happened a little more than a month ago, the one victory that put JSerra among the county's elite boys  soccer teams. Since they beat, Servite, 3-0, in the Aliso Tournament, however, they lost to Pasadena and played some unexpectedly close games with teams that should not have been much of a challenge for a program loaded with club talent like JSerra is.Last week, JSerra opened Trinith League play with a 3-3 tie against Orange Lutheran. Christopher Deering, Luis Morales and Dylan Seedman each scored for the Lions.

The Lions have a chance to reassert itself as top 10 on Wednesday when they face Mater Dei. The Monarchs might be without their star forward, Chris Zamarippa, who has a broken left ankle. But Mater Dei still put the pressure on Servite's tough group of defenders during a 0-0 tie on Friday. Had two Monarch shots not sailed a few inches above the crossbar, Mater Dei just might have left Servite High with a victory.

FRIDAY

SERVITE VS. ORANGE LUTHERAN (at Orange Lutheran): I just watched the Lancers play Santa Ana last week, and the teams played to a 0-0 tie. The Lancers just couldn't seem to anticipate where the next pass was headed, and that cost them in this game. Once they finally get going on offense, the Lancers can play with the best of them. They tied a talented JSerra team, 3-3, and they have a solid goaltender in Jake Mueller. Servite definitely take a beating here on the blog, but this is a SOLID team. Stephen Donnelly is an all-county first team caliber midfielder and Eric Brunter is one of the best defenders in the county. Add a steady goalie (Chris Violas) and streaky but talented defender in Dan Coates and the Friars, I believe, will emerge as the Trinity League champs.  When the Friars tied Mater Dei, 0-0, Donnelly was able to outsprint the Monarchs defenders and managed to send sevreal good crosses into the box; howwever, the Friars just couldnt convert in the windy conditions.

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