LAKEWOOD The Lakewood boys soccer team came into their May 3 game against Blaine as heavy favorites.
Blaine had made the playoffs due to district reformatting, but their chances to advance were even with Lakewoods at the start of the game. However, Lakewood left no doubt, cruising to a 5-1 victory and emphatically announcing their arrival to the district playoffs.
In a game played almost entirely in Blaines half of the field, Lakewood kept steady pressure up front through forward Evander Ochoa. Ochoa opened the Lakewood scoring in the 18th minute, getting loose in front of the net and drilling a low shot past the sprawling Blaine goalkeeper. Ochoa took an Eric Hawks pass four minutes later and turned again in front of the net to fire home Lakewoods second goal of the game.
The score remained 2-0 until halftime, thanks to the strong play of Lakewoods midfield who kept the ball going forward nearly the entire time. Sweeper Gerardo Resendiz dealt quickly and easily with whatever little offensive pressure Blaine could muster.
The second half got even uglier for Blaine, as a free kick from Resendiz could not be handled by the Blaine goalie and Jeremy Webb pounced on the rebound. Webbs goal put Lakewood safely out of reach at 3-0. Two minutes later Andrew Escalante scored to make it a blowout and after a consolation goal for Blaine, Lucas Antonnascio finished the last of Lakewoods goals to make it a 5-1 victory.
Lakewood advances to meet Sehome in the first round of the double elimination playoff system.