It’s a season anew in more ways that one for the Gilroy High boys varsity soccer team.Â
Seven players return from the Mustangs 2010-11 Tri-County Athletic League championship team. There are fresh faces abound, including four freshmen and three sophomores starters.
But with the new brings anticipation. And it didn’t take long for that wave of excitement to take over.
The seal had barely been snapped on the 2011-12 season. In fact, head coach Armando Padilla hadn’t yet flipped to the page in his binder where he meticulously jots down game notes when sophomore Carlos Jimenez booted home the Mustangs’ inaugural goal Wednesday night.
“What’s going on?” Padilla asked, pleasantly surprised. “A goal in the first three minutes?”
It was the lone goal of the first half, but a flurry of scoring in the second half turned the tight 1-0 game with Soquel into an eventual 4-2 victory for the Mustangs in their season opener.
“The final score is pretty indicative of where we are going to be, in the sense that we are going to give up some goals and have to find a way to put in more goals than the other team,” Padilla said.
What also hinted toward what may come this season: Three of the four goals were tallied by underclassmen. Freshman Andres Jimenez, who also contributed two assists, and sophomore Jorge Ontiveros, laced second half goals. Freshman Efren Pineda had an assist, and fellow freshmen Sean Kaufman and Alejandro Flores both started and saw significant playing time.
“After having tryouts, and after we made our team, we knew we were going to be very young, very inexperienced and very fresh – and really, very new to high school soccer,” Padilla said. “We have a lot of newcomers, which is great, because it gives us as coaches the chance to go back to teaching and really coaching.”
Gilroy lost three of its top-four scorers from a year ago to graduation. It’s an adjustment, sure, but for Padilla, it’s a welcomed change, too.
“They are very energetic and they want to do things right. And as a coach you want kids who are willing to work hard,” Padilla said. “Even if they make an error here or there, you’ll except it because you know they are working their tails off to get it right. And that’s the type of group we have here.”
Among all the newcomers though, the Mustangs return their best goal producer in Jonathan Diaz De Leon, who posted 18 goals in 2010 for a GHS squad that went 15-4-2 record, including victories in 12 of its final 14 caps. One of those defeats came in the Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinals to Evergreen Valley.
Defenders Mario Gomez and Gabe Contreras return to anchor the Mustangs’ back third, their most experienced area.
Diaz De Leon apparently hasn’t missed a beat, scoring a second half goal Wednesday – a mere two days after joining the team after his club season came to a close.
“Having Jonathan helps a lot,” Andres Jimenez said. “Our fitness helps us a lot. Our strengths are probably around the midfield and distributing the ball to the front.”
That passing was evidenced on all four GHS goals, which either materialized out of the midfield or end results following pressure stemming from set plays.
“We always have the goal here, whether we come in with 15 guys or 22 guys, new guys, experienced guys, our goal is to win a championship and play Gilroy High soccer – controlling the ball as much as we can, attacking the goal as much as we can and play team defense as much as we can,” Padilla said.
Highlighting the first few weeks of the season is a Dec. 8 matchup against Bellarmine and a crosstown clash with Christopher. And what better way to kick off the 12-game TCAL slate than a home encounter with Alisal, which had won the previous three league crowns before Gilroy dethroned them last season. The Trojans, who are two seasons removed from their own CCS championship, figure to be well equipped to make another run at the league title.
Padilla said having the defending champion title is fine in its own right, but he expects the players he has now to want to add their own chapter to the GHS soccer history books.
“They are still trying to build that identity of, ‘this is who we are.’ They are trying to fit that mold and history that we have here,” Padilla said. “It’s been a little difficult this first month, there’s definitely a learning curve. But I think these guys have the ability to put something really nice together this season.”
