The Varsity Boys soccer team has had several recent victories, including winning the California Central Coast Section (CCS) championships for the first time in over twenty years and further advancing to the quarterfinals of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state championship, Head Coach James Williams said.
This season’s game score ratio is twelve wins, four losses, and seven ties, Williams said. Several other team achievements include being undefeated at home games and becoming the first ever CCS Division V champions in school history.
Team Captain Gonzalo Merino Sanchez’s season responsibilities included defending and managing the players, he said.
“I lead and make sure I’m communicating, telling players where they need to be, and making sure that we execute the game plan,” Sanchez said. “We play 3-5-2, so I’m one of the center defensive mids.”
He also led the team during the state championships, where they advanced to the quarterfinals, he said.
“We play a very counterattack type of style,” Sanchez said. “We defend, and then when we win the ball, we go at the goal, attack quickly. So we just kept that going to the States games and depending on the teams that we played in state, we also changed around a little bit.”
To train the team for their season, Head Coach Williams had the entire roster engage in daily practices, he said.
“Usually we’ll go into groups based on position,” he said. “We’ll be working on whatever aspects of the game we need to improve based on what we’re seeing or what we need to get ready for the next game. We’ll do inner squads, not at this point of the season, but we do full field games.”
The overall match record for the team was slightly abnormal this season, Williams said.
“That’s (number of ties and losses) was a bit high, honestly,” he said. “But ties end up helping in the sense that it’s not a loss. You need those CCS points to get into the playoffs, and they (tied games) were all big matches. Some ties feel like wins because you feel like you’re better, it just kind of depends on the game.”
Senior Jesse Robles maintained an offensive position on the team this year, he said.
“I play the attacking mid, and I am the playmaker of the team,” he said. “I typically make the plays, hold down the floor up and attacking, hit down the wings and forward, and make shots.”
The team’s overall losses and ties were the result of accidents by their players, Robles said.
“It was just set pieces and unfortunate habits in the back, trying to clear the ball,” he said. “The teams were good, but many of their goals and losses came from our mistakes and set pieces from them.”
Sanchez has been team captain for two years, stepping further up as he moved from junior to senior year, he said.
“Last year I was team captain, but I had less overall responsibility,” Sanchez said. “There were other senior team captains last year, so I looked up to and learned from them. But this year, I took a lot more responsibility because I was a senior myself. Having played for four years, I think I have a lot of experience, so it’s more responsibility and I try to lead the team as best I can.”
For the state championships, the team had to constantly give all of their effort, Sanchez added.
“As a team, we always have high energy, high intensity,” Sanchez said. “As a team, we’re able to run other teams into the ground. All of us were out there trying our best, putting in the best work we could.”
Focusing on improvements, the team was struggling nearing the end of their playoff, he said.
“By the last game, we were physically, mentally, a little bit worn down,” Sanchez said. “Not that we didn’t do good recovery, our coaches made sure that we were recovering well. But it is pretty exhausting, going on such a deep playoff run and having to travel so far for each game. I think it took a little bit of a toll on us.”
Sanchez maintained that the team might have been able to do better for the state playoffs had they traveled less.
“If we had been able to play a couple home games, maybe we could have performed better just because we play really well at home. Overall, I’m proud of this season and everything we did.”