In its game against Oak Grove Thursday, it was a good news/bad
news situation for the Gilroy boys’ soccer team.
In its game against Oak Grove Thursday, it was a good news/bad news situation for the Gilroy boys’ soccer team.
The bad news is that it wasn’t very pretty for the Mustangs.
The good news is that it didn’t count.
There were real refs and there was real competition, but the Eagles’ 2-0 victory at GHS was simply a scrimmage and will not count against the the Mustangs’ record.
And for that, the Gilroy coaches were thankful.
“We’ve got lots of work to do,” co-head coach Armando Padilla said. “You could see they were a little nervous. We couldn’t trap, couldn’t pass, there was no energy, no communication.”
Oak Grove scored its goals in the first eight minutes and the last eight minutes and co-head coach Brian Hall was not exactly thrilled with his defense throughout.
“We just weren’t moving to the ball enough,” Hall said. “The best part of last year was our defense. The defense today was pathetic.”
The Mustangs actually did outshoot the Eagles on the day and more than a few chances.
Senior Alfonso Motagalvan just missed on a pair of headers, one hitting off the top crossbar. In the second half, headers from senior Marco Aguilar and freshman Ricardo Enriquez were both denied by nice saves.
To be fair, four Mustang starters were missing for the match – one violated team rules and three are wrapping up their club season. The missing players were D Artemion Arteaga, MF Ben Alcantar, F Everardo Diaz De Leon and goalie Bryan Velasquez.
“No excuses,” Hall said. “(Oak Grove) didn’t have three starters themselves.”
With the regular season starting next week at Alisal, Hall said the Mustangs now have a few days “to work the kinks out.”
Padilla said the team shouldn’t forget the loss, though.
“It’s a small taste of what we should expect,” he said of the Mustangs, CCS runner-ups last year at 21-1-5. “Teams will be gunning for us … trying to knock us down.
“Now every team wants to be able to go home and say they beat Gilroy. They’re coming to kick our butts.”
Wildcatz tops rankz
Watsonville High, returning eight starters from a team that defeated Gilroy in last season’s CCS title match, will start the season on top of the country.
The Wildcatz (26-1-1 last season) are ranked the No. 1 winter soccer team in America by StudentsSportsSoccer.com. California, Florida and Texas are among the seven states that play soccer during the winter.
