Diaz de Leon nets four in GHS boys soccer’s 6-0 win over
Palma.
GILROY – Fast, but in control.
Powerful, but precise.
Young, but talented.
That’s the Gilroy High boys soccer team in a nutshell.
And the Mustang kickers are only getting better as the season moves into its final stretch. Tuesday’s 6-0 blowout of league-foe Palma boosted the Mustangs’ record to 6-1-1 in the Tri-County Athletic League and 10-6-3 overall.
“Some teams jell early (but) come this time they fall apart. Some teams little by little start jelling,” said head coach Albert Marquez, whose squad has come into its own heading into a Thursday home game against North Salinas and then a Feb. 11 rematch against first-place Live Oak (7-0 in T-CAL) in Morgan Hilll, both at 3:30 p.m. “We’re finishing. It’s all falling into place… We’ve also been lucky to stay injury-free.”
Gilroy put on a show for the fans in attendance inside Mustang Stadium – scoring four first-half goals to put Palma away early. Sophomore forward Everardo Diaz de Leon registered a hat trick in the first half alone and added a fourth goal late in the second half. Junior striker Javier Hernandez scored in the first half as well, while senior co-captain Horacio Arteaga netted one to open the second half.
“Evy is totally catching on. It took a while for him to learn our system. He’s crashing the goal – which is getting him more goals – and he’s working really hard,” said Marquez of his sophomore scoring machine. “Javier is really playing huge for us. Having him on the field (draws all the defense’s attention).”
Controling the middle of the field for Gilroy were senior co-captain Jorge Cruz – who has been instrumental in the team’s success since moving up from defense – and sophomore sensation Alfonso Motagalvan – one of many highly-skilled kickers wearing Gilroy blue.
“We made a switch. We moved Jorge Cruz up in the middle. That’s working out real well,” said Marquez, who found his replacement for last year’s center-midfielder Juan Alvarado (Class of ’02). “That’s some big shoes to fill. Alfonso and Jorge are doing really well in the middle.”
The Gilroy defense also underwent a facelift with senior Marc Griffis sliding back from midfield joining seniors Scott Martin and Danny MacPhail along with freshman Artemio Arteaga.
“Defensively, we have senior leadership,” Marquez said. “Scott has just been been playing awesome. He’s solid, very reliable. He’s great in the air.”
And registering the shutout against Palma was junior netminder Oscar Garcia – who recently returned to his position of last year due to an injury to sophomore goalie Ernesto Torres.
“Oscar was awesome in the field and now he’s outstanding as our goalie again,” Marquez said.
Diaz de Leon scored the first three Gilroy goals – all on rebounds. The first came off a free kick taken by junior striker Jorge Plata – who rocketed a swirling shot that bounced off the cross bar and right to Diaz de Leon. The second came off another set piece booted by Motagalvan – whose blast was rebounded out to Diaz de Leon. The third started with a cross from Horacio Arteaga to Hernandez – who sent the ball off the cross bar and out to Diaz de Leon.
Before the break, Hernandez cracked the scoring column with a rebound goal – which began with a Plata corner kick and made its way off the head of Motagalvan before reaching Hernandez.
The Mustangs extended to a five-goal lead minutes into the second half when Arteaga scored and then Diaz de Leon finished things off with his fourth goal of the game.
“Last year, we had more people with experience. Now, we’re a young team,” said Cruz, who was a member of last year’s team that lost in the first round of the playoffs to Watsonville. “They might not have the experience, but they have the energy to play and that gives us incentive to play hard.”
