Above: La Serna’s Efrain Hernandez (#11) battles Whittier Christian’s Jared Conlin (#3) for the ball in their non-league game at Whittier Christian High School. La Serna beat Whittier Christian 4-0. (Staff Photo by Keith Durflinger)

For all you soccer fans, here’s my story on Friday’s nonleague game between La Serna and Whittier Christian.

LA HABRA — The game plan was pretty simple for the La Serna High School boys soccer team Friday.
The Lancers wanted to start fast and finish strong, with the former making the difference against Whittier Christian.
Midfielder Misael Orduno and forward Tanner Rath each scored goals within the first 10 minutes and La Serna outshot the host Heralds 7-0 in that span en route to a 4-0 victory in a nonleague game.
La Serna, also getting goals from midfielders Francisco Saucedo and Sergio Pliego, improved to 3-0-2.
Whittier Christian, which received nine saves from goalie Dylan Murphy, slipped to 0-6-1.
“We decided to start off with a lot of high pressure,” said La Serna coach Jerrod Savala, whose Lancers outshot the Heralds 20-9, including 12-3 in the first half. “We kind of had the wind at our back during the first half. Teams like this we want to try and put a couple of goals in early and just play our game, which is a control game.
“You want to do that against any team. But (Friday), especially, with two games (today in a tournament), we wanted to get out to a good start and play a possession game after that.”

The Lancers wasted little time, taking a one-goal advantage in the fourth minute.
Midfielder Efrain Hernandez pushed the ball down the right side before lofting a cross pass to a hard-charging Orduno, who put it by Murphy for a 1-0 lead.
Rath, after gathering up a loose ball near the top
of the scoring area, fired a shot past Murphy for a 2-0 advantage in the ninth minute.
Saucedo followed with a header in the 11th minute for a 3-0 lead.
Pliego closed the scoring with a perfect shot from about 30 yards out, putting it in the upper part of the goal for a 4-0 lead in the 28th minute.
“We had a game plan coming in,” Whittier Christian coach Matt Morse said. “We have a lot of new varsity players, so we’re just trying to teach them to be organized in the back, which we weren’t today.
“It’s just simple communication skills. The result today is disappointing, but the focus is to get on the same page as a team and figure out what works for us.”
The Heralds did manage to regroup and had some scoring opportunities near the end of the first half.
Ian Kovac had two long direct kicks that were blocked by La Serna goalie Alex Leon and Jared Conlin put two corner kicks out of bounds.
Whittier Christian’s best shot to score came in the 54th minute when Jimin Youn launched a shot from the top of the scoring area that was blocked by Leon.
“The game was pretty much over at halftime, so everyone was pretty much cruising,” Morse said. “But I told our guys there were specific things we needed to work on, in terms of providing more pressure in the midfield and stepping up and being organized in the back.”
La Serna, which outshot the Lancers 8-6 in the second half, had two chances to add to its lead. But Axel Duran missed on back-to-back shots in the scoring area in the 68th minute and Hernandez’s direct kick in the 75th minute was wide.
“I wouldn’t say we were on cruise control,” Savala said. “We subbed out a lot of kids. It was a good game to give everyone an opportunity to play.
“Again, I wouldn’t say we were on cruise control. We wanted to move the ball around and make them chase it. I think what we did was tire them out, if anything.”