SAN JOSE — The Sacred Heart Cathedral boys soccer team had yet to allow a goal in West Catholic Athletic League play this season.
But then the Fightin’ Irish ran into the defending champions Bellarmine College Prep.
Connor Brady scored in the 56th minute off of a penalty kick and that was all the Bells needed to secure a 1-0 victory over the visiting Fightin’ Irish Saturday morning in San Jose.
“I think it was the first game this season that we decided to play soccer and keep it on the ground,” Brady said. “There weren’t too many high balls and we’ve been working on that ever since the tie at St. Francis because at St. Francis we let them dictate the game and this game we wanted to dictate the game.”
Bellarmine (8-0-3, 4-0-1 WCAL) dropped points for the first time in WCAL play Wednesday with a 1-1 tie at St. Francis.
The Bells knew they would have to fine tune and make some adjustments against an SHC defense that has been suffocating in WCAL play.
“We knew their defense was good because they hadn’t allowed a WCAL goal so it was great to get the first one on them,” said first-year Bellarmine coach Conor Salcido. “Their goalie was great, a couple of more (goals) would’ve been nice but overall it was a good win.”
Goalkeeper Alejandro Munoz finished with six saves while Bells keeper Andrew Song had two.
The first half was close as both teams had three corner kicks and the Bells only outshot SHC 4-3.
From early on though, Salcido was confident and felt the Bells were going to get theirs it was just a matter of time.
“I’m proud of our guys it was a great game,” he said. “From the start of the first whistle I didn’t think we were going to give them any goals. Our defense did great and our offense capitalized when we needed to.”
SHC (6-1-3, 2-1-2) nearly got on the board when Bellarmine’s Dylan Carrubba almost had an own goal in the 71st minute when he tried to get it back to Song and the ball hit off the crossbar. Song was able to secure the rebound.
The luck wasn’t on the Fightin’ Irish’s side on that one.
SHC coach Jeff Wilson knew even with his team's early success in league, playing against the Bells is a different challenge in its own right.
“They are a good team, there’s no shame in losing to a team like Bellarmine,” Wilson said. “With their type of pedigree I thought they spaced the field real well and put us in difficult situations. They’ve been the best team in the WCAL for a long time 17 (Central Coast Section) titles so we are just going to learn from this and build and try and get better.”
The Fightin’ Irish will host Archbishop Riordan (3-5-2, 0-3-1) on Wednesday at 3:15 p.m. at Minnie and Lovie Ward Field.
Bellarmine will visit Valley Christian (2-7-0, 1-3-0) on Wednesday also at 3:15 p.m.
Wednesday’s tie against the Lancers served as a wake-up call for the Bells, who are eyeing another WCAL title.
“I’m confident with our team,” Salcido said. “As long was we can continue to play the style of our game; sometimes we let other teams dictate how we play and when we do that we can kind of get sidetracked. But if we can continue to possess, work out of the back and stay wide I don’t think there’s a team that can beat us.”
