Yorba Linda, CA — Foothill made the trip to Yorba Linda's stadium on a crisp January evening for the last conference game before they kick off Crestview competition next week. Yorba Linda entered the match with 2 consecutive wins after stunning Canyon 4-3 in comeback fashion two days earlier and Foothill was riding a 3 game win streak into the contest. One win streak would come to an end by the end of the evening. The Knights started off sluggish again and the Mustangs found the back of the net on a goal off of a corner kick in the 14th minute. The Knights equalized 6 minutes later Karlo Martinez switched the field and found Mitch Sampson who one touched to Jacob Garcia. Garcia played Matthew Mendoza in stride and he cut back to create space and beat the outstretched keeper to bottom left corner of the goal. The Knights continued to apply pressure with most of the possession and staying in the attacking half, however, the Mustangs capitalized on a counterattack in the 25th minutes as the Knights were caught out of position pressing too high on the field. (In review of the game film, the Yorba Linda player that scored, received the ball in an off side position and the goal should have been called back.) To add salt to the wounds, Foothill had a goal called back in the 36th minute that would equalized the match. Foothill mounted a beautiful buildup starting with Francisco "JJ" Arroyo on the right side deflecting to Lucas Regan in the middle who evaded his man and played a diagonal through ball to a streaking Brock Chapman on the left side of the pitch. Brock cut back, finding Garrett at the PK spot, who fired toward the right side of the goal. The shot was deflected by the keeper and the rebound was put away by Matty. (Again, review of game film showed that Mendoza was not in an off side position.) Foothill ended the half trailing 1-2 unjustly despite controlling most of the game. Foothill came out of the break with a fire in their bellies scoring 3 unanswered goals and almost adding 3 or 4 more. The equalizing goal came though the left side starting with the keeper, Josh Picker playing to Miles Teranishi out wide on the left who played into Matty who was positioned high and central. Mendoza held the ball up to draw the defender in and then played GZ on the diagonal who then found Kevin Ambrocio who buried it in the back of the net. The go ahead goal again started with Miles recovering a poorly cleared ball on the left side. Teranishi played into Tyler Reid who found Matty checking into midfield who found Miles again running forward on the wing. He carried forward, played GZ and overlapped and was rewarded with the ball again. Miles cut to the end line and played the ball back into Ambrocio who was hunting at the top of the six yard box and Kevin left no doubts, lasering the ball into the roof of the netting over the keeper's outstretched arms. The insurance goal started with Kevin gathering the ball on the left side of the field. He played the ball into Dylan Hicks at center back who found Trent Samaha on the right sideline. Trent saw the play develop and crossed the ball into GZ on the left side who absolutely destroyed his man, putting him on skates and driving toward the end line connecting with a streaking Matty who ran near post and finished with a cheeky heel to beat the keeper near bottom corner of the near post. Foothill should have added 2 or 3 more and even could have tallied 5 or 6 more. There was a scary moment in the 75th minute when the Mustangs had a 2 v 1 and Picker needed to come outside of his box to challenge the ball. The Yorba Linda striker and Picker collided. The game was stopped and both players were down for quite a while. Josh walked off and was evaluated by the trainer while the Mustang player was carried off by his teammates. Rayden Trujillo stepped on to finish out the last 5 minutes plus an extra 5 minutes of added time by the referee. Foothill's growth has been a beautiful thing to watch. The team has so many dangerous attacking weapons and can seemingly score at will. The progression in this team's movement off the ball, as well as selflessness, has lead to some remarkable plays, combinations, and goals. Surprisingly, resilience is turning out to be on of the team's most notable traits. Even when faced with mistakes, breakdowns, or even poor calls, this squad finds a way to claw back into the game. This week, Foothill takes on El Dorado Wednesday (7pm) and Canyon (7pm), both at home on FHS turf. Please come support your Knights as they begin league play. Let's go Knights!