Claremont High School boys soccer would be having a record breaking year if not for Diamond Bar. The Pack’s one loss in the Palomares League was two weeks ago against the Brahmas, who have stubbornly refused to lose.

But the Pack is still having a remarkable year as they added another game to the win list Tuesday in a 3-0 victory over Bonita at CHS.

Claremont played well against Bonita, but had a number of opportunities to score that for one reason or another did not materialize. The boys will definitely need to capitalize on more opportunities when they face Diamond Bar again next Tuesday.

When Claremont did get it right, it was poetry. The first goal came at the five-minute mark when senior Jack Kolodge passed to senior Patrick Luevano who only had to tip the ball to beat Bonita’s goalkeeper.

The two teams played all of the remaining first half and most of the second before Claremont added a second goal. In a similar set up to the first, junior Sean Renken played the ball wide and found Mateo Pacheco in the center who tapped it into the right side. The boys called it an “EG” for easy goal.

At the 70-minute mark a midfield collision halted play for about 20 minutes after Justin Tinajero suffered a nose injury. Staff attempted to stop the bleeding for several minutes and he was eventually helped from the field where he left in a vehicle driven by a relative.

The final goal was a bit controversial, resulting in a fair amount of protest from the Bonita bench. Claremont landed a forward pass close to the Bonita net, but was initially called offside. However, the offending player stopped in his tracks and the referee allowed play to continue, at which point Osvaldo Lopez found himself all alone with the ball and just booted it past the keeper.

“The pace of the game was good, some of the choices were not so good, they were going forward too much instead of mixing it up. We wasted so many chances early, we must have missed four or five [chances] right in front of goal,” said coach Fred Bruce-Oliver.

Following the game coach Bruce-Oliver had to endure a bit of teasing from his team because he had warned them they would not have an easy win against the Bearcats.

“They are giving me a hard time because I told them it would not be a 3-0 game but it was a 3-0 game. But it was not as easy as that I am sure,” he said.

Claremont played Ayala at home on Thursday and will have their rematch against Diamond bar on Tuesday. The pack has a 5-1-0 record in League and 12-4-2 overall.

—Steven Felschundneff

steven@claremont-courier.com