DEFENDING CHAMPS ON A ROLL.

Byline: Lauren Gustus Staff Writer

There haven't been many surprises for the Santa Clarita Christian boys' soccer team this season. The defending co-champions of the Hillcrest League are 7-1 overall, 5-0 in league.

The play of Ryan Labeaune, a sophomore, has been an unexpected boost for the Cardinals. He's helping out Kyle Doty, Orlandi Pena and James Richardson with the attack.

``He came up to me one day at school before (the) season,'' coach Steve Cooper said, ``and told me he'd like to play, and I said, `OK.' And he's really coming along.''

Santa Clarita Christian plays Hillcrest Christian of Thousand Oaks on Tuesday, the team with which it shared last year's league title. In the teams' first meeting, in Santa Clarita, there was no question who the better team was: the Cardinals won 6-0. But Hillcrest was without its top three players, all out sick, and Tuesday's matchup at Hillcrest should be much closer.

The Cardinals continue to rely on Matt Ganz, their senior sweeper, for big stops.

``He's just taken charge this year,'' Cooper said. ``We've got a couple of shutouts because of him.''

After Hillcrest, the Cardinals host Pilgrim of Los Angeles on Thursday.

--Four stars: The boys' basketball team might have started the season 2-12, but it's now the owner of a spotless league record. Santa Clarita Christian is 4-0 in the Heritage League, and barring a major downturn, the Cardinals should advance to postseason play.

The Cardinals intentionally played a tough nonleague schedule, and they expected both the rough start and the big turnaround.

With a victory over Faith Baptist of Canoga Park on Thursday, the Cardinals will have completed a sweep of the first half of their league season.

Improvement in key areas has contributed to the Cardinals' victories, according to coach Larry Sulham. The team is doing a better job of rebounding more consistently, and it gets more second-chance shots and stops more fastbreaks from starting. The Cardinals have implemented new defenses in each league game to confuse opponents. And Matt Dixon and Caleb Sulham, the teams' leading scorers, have picked up the pace.

``I think that winning is a lot more fun,'' Larry Sulham said. ``It's a lot more fun to go to practice and have coaches getting on you to work hard when you win. It's hard to keep going if you're not getting any results.''

The Cardinals play New Roads of Santa Monica today, and the team wants to see how it measures up against a nonleague opponent.

``We're ready for a test to see where we are and see what else we need to work on,'' Sulham said. ``They're ranked right now (in Southern Section Division V-A), and they have developed into a very good team this year. We'll see how far we've come.''

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