The Montgomery High School boys soccer team owned a lower seeding than its opponent in last Saturday’s San Diego Section Division II championship game at Mission Bay High School but, to a man, the Aztecs believed they had the better team.
That belief was proven correct as seventh-seeded Montgomery (16-3-4) scored three unanswered goals, including two goals in the final 24 minutes, to emerge with a hard-fought and wildly satisfying 3-1 victory against the fifth-seeded Mission Hills Grizzlies (16-8-3).
“Everybody worked hard and this was the result,” explained an ecstatic Julian Castro, who scored an insurance goal in injury time to put the game away while also adding an assist on his team’s first goal.
“At the beginning of the season, we set a goal to win CIF and worked hard every day in practice to make it happen,” Castro added.
The CIF title is the second in three years for the Otay Mesa school. Montgomery won the Division IV championship in 2015.
Castro was a member of both championship teams. “It feels amazing,” he said.
Aztec head coach Gaston Vazquez called the championship-clinching victory “a great feeling.”
He said his team did exactly what it needed to do to win the game. That he said, was “to play the ball.”
The Grizzlies took a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute when Andy Galvan converted a penalty kick. But the lead didn’t last long.
Montgomery, employing a very skillful short passing game, tied the game in the 25th minute when Enrique Salazar cashed in on a cross from Castro.
The game-winning goal developed off a throw-in from the right attacking side in the 56th minute.
The ball first bounced off the head of a Montgomery player, then off the head of a Mission Hills player before setting at the feet of Jesus Salazar, who promptly redirected the ball to the top near corner with a swift right-footed kick.
The Mission Hills goalkeeper made a key save three minutes later to prevent his team from trailing further.
The Aztecs weathered two great Grizzly scoring chances to preserve their one-goal lead.
Castro’s insurance goal came against the run of play as Mission Hills was desperately pushing the attack forward in search of the equalizer in stoppage time.
Castro gained possession of the ball on the left attacking side near the midline and rushed down field, turning in toward the corner flag before charging in front of the net to deliver the final blow against the Grizzlies.
That brought chants of “Olé, olé, olé” from the boisterous Montgomery fans and, when the whistle to end the game finally blew, cries of celebration from Aztec players and coaches on the pitch.
Winning the championship while moving up two competition divisions obviously says a lot about the school’s soccer program.
“The boys keep raising the level of competition,” Montgomery High School assistant principal of student activities Daniel Cohen said. “We have some good competition in the South Bay now. It raises everyone’s level.”
