The Bonita Vista and Mater Dei Catholic high school boys soccer teams aren’t necessarily headed in opposite directions. Rather, both teams appear headed in the same direction: qualifying for the upcoming San Diego Section divisional playoffs.
The Barons and Crusaders battled to a scoreless tie in a Metro-Mesa League match Tuesday at BVHS. The tie didn’t help either team gain much ground on the league- leading Eastlake Titans, but it did keep both teams on course for the playoffs.
Bonita Vista (9-6-6 overall, 0-3-3 in league play) is holding onto the No. 2 position in the Division IV power rankings (behind the Montgomery Aztecs) while Mater Dei Catholic (6-5-5, 2-2-1) sits fifth overall in the Division II power rankings.
Both teams, should they maintain those positions, would host home playoff matches in their opening post-season games.
The section’s divisional playoffs are set to kick off Feb. 24 and conclude with finals March 6-7 at Mesa College and Madison High School.
Both the Barons and Crusaders are hoping to overcome a current goal-scoring dearth when the playoffs start.
Bonita Vista rode an early season 11-game unbeaten streak (8-0-3) to a roaring 9-2-3 start. However, the Barons had yet to post a win since Jan. 9 entering Thursday’s Mesa League home match against Otay Ranch (8-4-5, 3-1-2).
New BVHS coach Tracy Powell said his team remains in the hunt for a CIF division championship despite the recent downturn in scoring.
“With a new group of guys, a new coach, understanding how to maintain that early season success has been the key,” Powell explained. “Our league is a lot more competitive. We match up with teams that have returning experience and returning coaches. Most of our losses have been by one goal. We’re just not finishing.
“But we’re right on the path to fulfill that CIF playoff goal we have. We want to compete in our last two league games to stay on track to build up for the playoffs.”
Mater Dei Catholic is one of three Metro Conference teams bidding to secure Division II playoff berths.
Castle Park, which battled to a 1-1 draw at second-ranked Chula Vista on Tuesday, improved to 11-5-3 overall (1-1-1 in Metro-Pacific League play), to hold down the No. 4 power ranking in the division.
Olympian, which dropped a 2-1 match to Otay Ranch on Tuesday, dropped to 5-11-3 overall (0-4-1 in Metro-Mesa League play) as the 13th-ranked team in the division.
The top 12 teams qualify for post-season play.
“It’s a bit of a jump from Division IV, so we don’t have the luxury of giving up a point here and there (in the Division II rankings),” Crusader coach Jorge Zavala said. “We’ve managed to go toe-to-toe with people. The big problem for us right now is that we aren’t scoring. But, hopefully, that will change as we get closer to the playoffs.”
MDCHS goalkeeper Adrian Roman and BVHS goalkeeper Varuzhan Horhanesian each made several key stops to share the shutout in Tuesday’s contest.
