High School Soccer : Playoff-Bound Monroe Guns Down Grant

Sergio Vargas scored his 11th and 12th goals of the season to lead Monroe High to a 4-2 win over Grant in a Valley Pac-8 Conference soccer match at Monroe on Monday.

Jose Valdez and Panya Chua scored a goal each for Monroe (10-1-1, 6-1-1 in league play). Monroe, which leads the conference, will play host to Birmingham in its final regular-season match on Wednesday and will then head into the playoffs next week as the probable top-seeded team from the Valley area.

Reseda 3, Van Nuys 0--Sophomore Elder Noriega scored two goals and Victor Calderon added another as host Reseda (5-5-3, 1-5-2) notched its first Valley Pac-8 Conference win.

Goalkeeper Danny Keeva recorded his fifth shutout.

Birmingham 2, North Hollywood 1--Ricardo Sanchez scored a breakaway goal with 30 seconds remaining as Birmingham improved its chances of winning a playoff spot by raising its record to 3-3-2 in Valley Pac-8 play and 7-3-2 overall.

Mario Martinez scored Birmingham’s other goal after the Braves trailed, 1-0, at halftime. North Hollywood fell to 4-2-2 in conference play.

Cleveland 0, San Fernando 0--Cleveland goalkeeper John Snaider recorded his fifth shutout of the season in the Northwest Valley Conference match.

Cleveland is 4-0-5 in league play and 5-3-5 overall, only one point in front of San Fernando (3-0-6 in league play).

Kennedy 2, Granada Hills 2--Heros Daniels and Ryan Ransdell scored a goal each as Granada Hills and Kennedy battled to a tie in the Northwest Valley Conference match.

Mike McDonald and Eric Susten scored for Kennedy (1-1-7 in league play). Granada Hills is 5-2-5, 3-2-4.

Poly 4, Marshall 1--Monir Beria scored twice as Poly moved into third place in the Valley Pac-8 Conference with a 5-3-1 league mark.

Eric Montoya and Edgar Rivera also scored for Poly.

El Camino Real 1, Chatsworth 0--Chatsworth remained atop the West Valley League at 4-2-3 despite the loss to El Camino Real (2-5-2 in league play).

El Camino’s score came on an own goal when the ball caromed off a Chatsworth player. Chatsworth is 9-5-3 overall with one regular-season game remaining.

Harvard 4, Pasadena Poly 0--Harvard goalkeeper Ari Engelberg recorded his eighth shutout of the year and his fifth in seven matches as Harvard improved to 12-9-1 with a nonleague win.

Andrew Weiss scored twice and Marty Holly and Jay Borenstein had one goal each for the Saracens.

Taft 4, Canoga Park 1--The Toreadors scored three times in the second half to break a 1-1 tie and improve to 4-5-0 in Northwest Valley Conference play.

GIRLS

Cleveland 2, Venice 1--Marykate Costello and Hilda Doushgounian scored one goal each as Cleveland improved to 2-6 in Northwest Valley Conference play.

Grant 1, Palisades 1--Amanda Walzer scored her 33rd goal of the year as Grant improved to 5-1-3 in East Valley League play and 9-1-3 overall.

Alemany 6, Crossroads 0--Mary Aragon scored her first goal of the season as Alemany (8-0) remained undefeated in San Fernando Valley League play.

Chaminade 1, Notre Dame 0--Fiona Chaney scored midway through the first half to give Chaminade (12-8-2, 5-3) a win in a San Fernando Valley League match at Chaminade.