Milpitas
– Just because Forrest Alvarez is a freshman didn’t excuse him
from the wrath of Gilroy co-coach Brian Hall at halftime.
Milpitas – Just because Forrest Alvarez is a freshman didn’t excuse him from the wrath of Gilroy co-coach Brian Hall at halftime.
Hall got on Alvarez about missing an easy header that could have led to a first-half goal and told him, “You could have been a hero. You have to make up for it.”
Alvarez did make up for it. He took a corner kick from Humberto Pineda and headed it into the goal, jump-starting the Mustangs on their way to a 2-0 win over Bellarmine Prep and the first solo Central Coast Section soccer title in the school’s history.
The 1990-91 team shared the title with Santa Cruz. The 2003-04 squad, which included current seniors Jose “Tapon’ Velasquez and Pineda, finished second to Watsonville. The championship came at the expense of the 12-time titlist Bells, who were also the defending champions.
“It’s amazing,” Alvarez said of scoring the team’s first goal in the title game. “The pass was great. I am glad I got another opportunity.”
“He has a way of making things happen,” GHS co-coach Armando Padilla said of Alvarez, who scored the first goal in the quarterfinal win over Woodside.
It was the new and the old scoring goals for the fourth-seeded Mustangs, who concluded a 17-2-5 season by extending their unbeaten streak to 16. Velasquez scored nine minutes after Alvarez, when he took a direct kick from Andy Moya and scored on a header.
“It’s ironic,” Hall said. “We scored two goals on their style of play with head balls. It was all about passing.”
It was also about speeding up the game. The No. 2-seeded Bells (20-3-6) seemed to tire a bit late in the first half. The halftime message from the Gilroy coaches was simple: keep up the pace, keep up the intensity against a taller, more physical opponent.
“We worked hard,” junior defender Eric Miller said. “They were very physical. We tried to do everything we could to get the ball cleared out.”
On the offensive end, Gilroy wanted to turn it into a running game with its short passing and attacks down the sidelines.
“We wanted to speed up the game,” Alvarez said. “We started off well passing, then seemed to get too relaxed. We executed our game plan. It was a good way for our seniors to end their careers.”
It wasn’t just Velasquez and Pineda. Goalkeeper Jairo Rodriguez-Avalos posted his third straight shutout in the playoffs and fifth in the last six games.
“Today was about the defense,” sophomore forward Bruce Ocana said.
“We had some opportunities,” Bellarmine coach Patrick Lowney said. “We just didn’t get them in. Overall, I would say they controlled the game 55 (percent)-45. There’s a lot of talent there. Their coaches are doing a great job there. I’m happy for their kids, disappointed for ours.”
It was a great way for the seniors to end their careers, but they couldn’t be any happier than Miller, who was a junior varsity player at Bellarmine last year.
“As soon as the season started, me and Jairo said how neat it would be for us to face Bellarmine in the final,” Miller said. “We were kind of joking at the beginning of the season about how we thought we would be here against them.”
It was no joke. Three days after toppling the No. 1-ranked team, the Mustangs planted another top seed.
