What happened: No. 5 Foothill scored with less than 10 minutes to play to beat Huntington Beach, 1-0, in a Sea View League game Friday afternoon at Foothill High.

And there will surely be repercussions, as four red cards given in the match.

Records: Foothill 10-4-5, 3-0-2; Huntington Beach 2-7-5, 0-3-2

How it looked: The match was rugged from the start, but Foothill never seemed threatened by the Oilers. Before the match, Knights coach Barry Turner said his team has been working on finishing better, but again they lacked in that area.

It wasn’t without effort, however, and that effort produced a goal with time running down off a set piece. The Oilers had a late run and sent a cross in front of net, but nothing came of it. It was one of the Oilers better looks on the afternoon.

Who scored: Kyle Dylewski scored for the Knights. A ball rolled free through the box off a set piece to Dylewski, who took one touch and sent a hard right footer high, near the far corner, and over the goalie’s hands.

The cards: Huntington Beach plays Woodbridge on Saturday in a make-up match, but the Oilers will be without three players who received red cards Friday. Two were straight reds, the other was yellow-red.

The Knights also had a player kicked out because of a red card.

I didn’t get a chance to speak with Oliers coach Austin Nichols after the game. The Oilers took off pretty quick, and understandbly so. I would imagine Nichols wasn’t pleased with the situation.

In my opinion, the refs never had control of this match. I have seen this head ref before, and he doesn’t seem to call anything until the second half.

I saw both teams fouling. Neither team was innoncent, and no doubt both teams were committing needless and dangerous, fouls.

The bottom line: If the refs won’t protect the players, who will? The players need protection, and if the refs won’t or can’t, then the players will start to protect themselves. And that is usually when things get out of control.

The Oilers didn’t lose this match because of the refs. Let’s be clear about that. But they will have an effect on two matches for both teams.

More from the boys soccer blog:

• Boys soccer: Tobolski’s 3 of the day
• Boys soccer: Tesoro taming the South Coast
• Boys soccer: Which team has best case for top 10? (with poll)
• Football recruiting: All-County kicker commits to Cal
• Boys Soccer: Wednesday roundup
• Boys Soccer: The weekly contest, Day 1
• Boys soccer: No. 10 Woodbridge contains Trabuco Hills

 

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