It’s another league title during a landmark season for Christopher boys soccer. No one in the league could knock off Coach Josue Salgado’s Cougars and they captured the Blossom Valley Athletic League, Santa Teresa South Division crown with a 7-0-3 record.
CHS, 12-2-4 overall, has not lost in 12 contests since Dec. 19.
“This year we have a lot of good attacking pieces,” Salgado said. “Avery (Montejano) and Raul (Ramos) have been playing together for a couple years. They work together well. We get the wings in the attack too—Daniel Prado, Guillermo Valdez.
“Our midfielders do a great job. We have an older defensive class and our defense has been very solid. David Romero, Josh Candelaria and Kevin Bustamante and keeper Alan Sanchez.”
Salgado noted the depth of his team and also credited several other big contributors. Jesus Garcia is strong up front. Ricardo Espinosa, Jose Aguayo, Luca Warren, Christian Ramos and Kingston Solomon contribute in the middle on both offense and defense.
On the back line, Brenden Vazquez, Cristian Velazquez and Quinn Matthews bolster the stop unit.
Montejano and Ramos have been standouts. Montejano demolished the previous school record for goals in a season and has now advanced the mark to 25. He has seven assists, as does Ramos, who has knocked in 17 goals himself.
“He and I have played together since we were 10,” Ramos said. “We know where each other will be and what each can do.”
Over the last 12 contests, Christopher has scored 39 goals and allowed just 12, with four of the matches being shutouts. In the last seven, the Cougars have scored 25 and yielded just six.
In league play, CHS swept Leland 3-0 and 6-1, smashed Sobrato twice 4-2 and 5-1, and won the city title with 5-0 and 2-1 wins over Gilroy.
The Cougars beat Live Oak 4-0 and tied the Acorns 2-2 in a rematch. Christopher tied Santa Teresa 0-0 and 1-1, but won the league title as the Saints lost to Sobrato 4-2 and 4-3.
Cougar highlights included a 4-3 win over Silver Creek, the titlist in the “sibling” division, the BVAL, Santa Teresa North Division. There were also two big wins over Sobrato and two victories over Gilroy.
The initial meet-up with the city rival Mustangs was one of the Cougars’ best efforts of the season. The contest came on a chilly night at the Mustangs’ home field on Jan. 27. CHS rocked the joint to the tune of a 4-0 halftime lead, on the way to a 5-0 win.
“It’s a huge victory,” said Salgado, after the match. “Not just because of the standings to stay in first place, but also because it’s a huge rivalry game.”
Ramos said there was friendly talk between the two teams during the week. He cited success coming from Christopher playing together and playing as a team, crediting players up and down the field.
In league play, the Christopher defense really shined during the opening five games. In that span, the Cougars rolled four shutouts and jumped ahead of the pack with a 4-0-1 league mark.
Offensive fireworks have come from the toe of Montejano. He scored three-goal hat tricks against Overfelt, James Lick, Soquel and Gilroy. In the Overfelt game, he collected four assists, with Ramos scoring four times in that match.
Ramos came through in the big games, scoring three against Silver Creek and two in each of the Sobrato contests.
Montejano could be crowned king of the city, as he scored a total of five goals in the 5-0 and 2-1 wins over Gilroy, three in the former game and both of the scores in the rematch.
In the first head-to-head collision, CHS opened the scoring in the 16th minute. Ramos deked and dodged several Gilroy defenders, then passed ahead to Montejano.
“I was in the middle,” Ramos said. “I beat a guy one-on-one and saw Avery break a diagonal run.”
Montejano saw the back post open and rifled the ball into that side of the net for the score. Then it was quite a “celly,” as Montejano expressed his joy with a cartwheel and a backflip, as the Cougars bench ran down to the corner to join in the fun.
Gilroy fought hard and the game was competitive for most of the first half. Then Christopher took charge with an avalanche of goals.
The second tally came on a set piece. Warren initiated it on a corner kick. As he readied for it, Ramos came over to the corner to talk with Warren, then ran back to the left front of the net.
“I ran back and brought a defender with me,” the 5-foot-11 Ramos said. “I waited for the header and got it. Coach teaches us things like that in practice. It felt amazing.”
Just three minutes later, Solomon, Valdez and Ramos combined on passes and Montejano cashed it in. With his back to the net, he quickly turned and rifled a shot into the goal before the keeper could react. It was 3-0.
Just over two minutes more and it was another Cougars goal. Candelaria, strong on defense all night, lofted a long free kick up field. Amid a cluster of players, Montejano got to the ball first and popped it into the goal.
In the second half, a Warren free kick from the side went into the box. It was saved but did not get cleared. Montejano pounced on the rebound and smashed it home for the goal and a 5-0 margin.
“It was a very fun and competitive game,” Montejano said. “We passed well. Josue (Coach Salgado) has taught us a lot. Our goals are to win league and get to CCS.”
Nailed that. Next up are the CCS playoffs.
Two years ago, Christopher parlayed an unbeaten league season into two CCS wins and an appearance in the Division III final. The Cougars missed the postseason last year.
This year’s CCS bracket reveal will be on Feb. 19, with games scheduled from Feb. 21 through the finals on Feb. 28. If all goes well, there could be NorCal and CIF State playoffs to follow.
