Castle Park, Olympian and Hilltop’s boys soccer teams piled up valuable rankings points by each winning their divisions in the revived San Diego County Cup.
The impressively large 54-team field included five divisions (both varsity and junior varsity). Finals took place Dec. 30 at Hilltop High School.
“It was a great return,” said Hilltop coach Jesse Acevedo, who served as tournament director. “It went well, it was very competitive. There was a lot of participation from the South Bay teams.”
The 2023 edition featured three varsity divisions and two JV divisions.
Olympian won the JV Green Division with a 6-5 KFM (penalty kicks from the mark) win over Otay Ranch following a scoreless tie. Southwest edged Sweetwater, 1-0, to win the Elite JV Division.
In varsity play, Castle Park bested Escondido Charter 4-2 in the KFM shootout following a 2-2 draw while Olympian topped Southwest El Centro, 4-1, in the Varsity Green Division. Hilltop closed out the event with a 1-0 victory against Crawford to capture the Varsity Elite Division.
Castle Park advanced to the championship round with one win (6-4 over Mt. Miguel), one loss (4-0 to Escondido Charter) and one tie (2-2 against Imperial).
The Trojans received single goals from junior Israel Zavala Meza, senior Getziel Andrade, junior Roberto Escobedo, senior Henry Crespo, senior Francisco Salcedo and junior Valentino Artigas in the high-scoring win over Mt. Miguel.
Castle Park obviously had some amends to address against Escondido Charter following the pool-round loss.
Escobedo scored in the first half as the teams played to a 1-1 draw. The White Tigers scored the 2-1 go-ahead goal 15 minutes from time but Salcedo pushed Castle Park back into a tie, 2-2, on a goal with 12:50 remaining in regulation.
The Trojans finished the game strong defensively to advance to the KFM tiebreaker that went nine shooters.
Salcedo, junior Alex Estrada, Escobedo and Andrade each scored in the tiebreaker in support of CP junior goalkeeper Aaron Sanchez.
Trojan head coach Victor Vargas said the difference from the earlier loss to the White Tigers was making a switch to the lineup. “They play with four midfielders and we play with three,” Vargas said. “We added a midfielder and that was the big difference.”
The division championship raised the Trojans’ early season record to 5-2-5 in advance of Metro-Pacific League play against rivals Mater Dei Catholic, Otay Ranch and Mar Vista.
“So far, it’s been good,” Vargas said. “We’ve played 12 games with only two losses.”
Olympian (8-3-5) advanced to the championship round with a 2-1 win over Valley Center and 1-1 draws against both Central Union and Otay Ranch. Senior Flavio Mora Gil scored both goals in the win over Valley Center and added one in the game against Central Union. Senior Alex Shepard scored in the tie against Otay Ranch.
The Eagles took a 3-0 lead in the opening half of the final on goals by junior Diego Valles, sophomore Dylan Loe and Shepard. Sophomore Carlos Juarez made it 4-0 on a shot that just slipped under the crossbar with 16:30 remaining in the second half.
Southwest El Centro scored with 13:30 left in regulation.
The championship game victory was a big deal for Olympian, which finished 3-13-7 last season.
“I’m very proud of the boys,” OHS coach Joey Gonzalez said. “They worked very hard. We had played them earlier in the season and beat them 1-0 and our goal was to beat them again. Hopefully, we can continue the momentum the rest of the season.”
Hilltop advanced to last year’s Division II section semifinals. “We hope to be there again,” Acevedo said.
The Lancers (6-2-3) finished 2-0-1 in pool play with a 1-0 win over Highland (Ariz.), a 2-2 draw against Southwest and a 1-0 win over San Ysidro.
Nicolas Sanchez scored the game-winner against Highland while Christian Velazquez notched the game-winner against San Ysidro. Jorge Lopez Figueroa and Alberto Camacho each had goals in the tie against Southwest.
Sebastian Zuniga scored the lone goal in the championship match with 3:25 remaining in the first half. Noah Castillo made three saves to record the shutout victory.
Getting their kicks
The San Diego Section soccer rankings are out. To no one’s surprise, South County teams have been favorably recognized.
No. 6 Southwest (7-4-2) and No. 8 Eastlake (7-4-2) are both in line to qualify for the Open Division boys playoffs while No. 2 Eastlake (9-3-0) in in line for the same for the Open Division girls playoffs.
Local boys sides in line for upper seeds in the upcoming playoffs (Feb. 13-23) include No. 8 Hilltop (6-4-4) and No. 9 Bonita Vista (8-4-3)in Division II, No. 7 Olympian (12-4-5) in Division III, No. 3 Mater Dei Catholic (5-3-2) and No. 7 Otay Ranch (5-7-7) in Division IV and No. 2 Castle Park (6-4-5) in Division V.
Girls teams earning their share of respect in the power rankings include Mater Dei Catholic (5-2-3) in Division I, No. 4 Olympian (7-2-6) in Division II, No. 9b Chula Vista Learning Community Charter (9-2-2) in Division III, No. 5 Sweetwater (15-1-1) in Division IV and No. 2 Mar Vista (12-5-0) and No. 5 Castle Park (4-9-1) in Division V.
