Although the boy’s Varsity Soccer team has had a challenging season, they were able to make it to the playoffs!
The boy’s Varsity Soccer team had their first Division II Championship Game on February 9. The game was hosted at Huntington Park High School at 3:30 p.m. The boys faced off against Hollywood High and were able to successfully defeat them with a score of 1 – 0.
“We had two great practices the last two days, and the boys seem ready today,” said Coach Werner Bonilla
Both Coach Bonilla and Coach Mateos have been coaching the boy’s Soccer team, with Bonilla being the head coach, and Mateos coaching the JV team. They have been training the boys after school, and during their 8th-period conditioning class with the athletes. On the day of their first Championship game, the varsity boys were in their advanced conditioning class preparing for their game.
Many athletes in the JV team were bumped up into the varsity team. Some of the boys were Carlos Chavez, Rudy Chavez, Angel Ruiz, and Reymundo Salcedo. Currently, there are 25 players that are in the varsity roster.
“They seem very concentrated, and they are ready to compete,” said Bonilla
The boy’s Varsity team has had an overall record of 4-10-6, but their league record is 1-7-4, and are currently 6th in the Eastern League.
The Spartans are currently 16th in their division. However, on February 15, the Spartans faced off against the number 1 team in their division, Poly High School. Poly High School has had an overall record of 11-3-1, but their league record is 9-2-1 and they are currently 2nd in the East Valley League. Unfortunately, the Spartans weren’t able to come out with a win. They lost against the Parrots with a score of 2-0.
“It was a good game overall, however, the outcome should have been different”, according to a former soccer player, Christopher Hernandez, a senior, striker.
“It was a good game, we had a good first half, we ended off 0-0, we had a tough game, we were running the 4-4-2 lineup. In the second half, they called a penalty on us, which Poly scored,” said Hernandez
The team was able to hold their own weight against the top school in their division for the first half, sadly it wasn’t enough when it came to defeating Poly High School, in order to continue in the season. Although this was the end of the soccer season for the boy’s Soccer team, there is still much growth and communication for the team to develop. With that, the season comes to a bittersweet end.
Written By: Alondra Ruiz, Sports Editor