The Eastlake High School boys soccer team kicked off its 2017-18 season on Dec. 7 with a 3-0 home victory against the West Hills Wolf Pack. Besides scoring three goals in the game, the Titans also scored in another department: Lacing Up 4 Pediatric Cancer.
Eastlake soccer players wore gold shoelaces during the game to bring awareness to the disease.
“We have teamed up to show our commitment to the fight against pediatric cancer,” Titan coach Jason Renfro said. “The Eastlake High School family and many others across our country have or are currently battling this disease.”
The Titans are certainly bringing awareness to their program with an undefeated 2-0-2 start.
D.J. Del Fierro, Sammy Rahim and Adrian Reyes each scored goals in the shutout win over West Hills while Johnny McCann, Jezrael Saiko and Tyler Sherard each recorded assists.
Parker Merrifield made five saves to record the shutout victory.
Eastlake played to subsequent 2-2 ties against Cathedral Catholic (Dec. 14) and Scripps Ranch (Dec. 15) and defeated Hoover by a score of 3-1 on Dec. 16.
Rahim, a senior forward, leads the Titans in scoring with six goals while Reyes, a senior center-midfielder, has scored two goals.
Top returners for Eastlake include Rahim, Reyes, McCann, a senior midfielder, and sophomore center-midfielder Danny Martinez.
Rahim finished as the runner-up for last season’s Mesa League Player of the Year award after recording 13 goals and seven assists.
Renfro calls McCann a “hard working midfielder who provides support offensively and defensively” and says that Reyes conducts the midfield and pulls the strings offensively.”
The EHS coach said Martinez, the team’s super sophomore, “will provide a ton of offense for the team.”
Impact newcomers include senior center-midfielder Isaac Cass, Sherard, a junior defender, junior midfielder Mauricio Ricalde, sophomore midfielder/forward Greg Martinez and sophomore midfielder/defender Eric Allen.
Cass missed last season due to a knee injury but is one of the key players in the midfield this season, according to Renfro.
The Titan coach called Sherard “a rock solid defender who controls the back line” and Ricaldo “a talented winger who has the one-on-one ability to create.”
Martinez was the junior varsity team’s Golden Boot recipient last season.
Renfro said Allen is a talented sophomore who can play multiple roles for the team.
This season Eastlake has moved up to the Division I level.
“The challenges are going to be great, but over the past six seasons, we have gradually moved from Division III to Division I,” Renfro explained. “We have seen a steady stream of players who play at an extremely high level outside high school that has transitioned the program. Adding a novice program a few years back has allowed us to have a feeder program that creates an additional 22 student-athletes.”
Eastlake has been eliminated in the San Diego Section semifinals in three of the past five seasons, including two via the brutal kicks-from-the-mark tie-breaker.
“We’ve been close to reaching our goals — a CIF title — but have fallen short,” Renfro said. “Last year’s record of 14 wins, 10 losses and two draws was an example of games going either way. Our first loss was by more than one goal, so every game we played could’ve gone either way. This season we look to win our Mesa League and get a high seed in either the Open Division or Division I.”
The Titans have thus set the bar high for the 2017-18 season.
“Our team chemistry is key, especially early in the season, as these boys have yet to play together,” Renfro noted. “As we get into January, the chemistry should begin to take shape and our play should become well organized. With a large senior class and a solid junior and sophomore class the season outlook is bright.
“Jeff Taylor (JV coach), Jesse Acevedo (novice coach) and Vince Acevedo (assistant coach) all bring a nice pedigree with them. They have an enormous task of preparing the next generation for varsity and are a large part of Eastlake’s recent success.”
