The Castle Park and Olympian high school boys soccer teams met Jan. 15 at Castle Park High School in a high profile match-up of teams bidding to qualify for next month’s San Diego Section Division II playoffs.
Both teams have enjoyed playoff success in recent years. Olympian advanced to last year’s division semifinals while Castle Park won the Division III championship in 2010 and also advanced to last year’s Division II semifinals.
Predictably, the outcome of the game was settled in dramatic fashion as the host Trojans seemingly rose from the dead to claim a 3-2 non-league victory against the Eagles on a goal by Luis Dominguez with six minutes to play in regulation time.
CPHS head coach Jose Cobian Jr. was pleased by the win but not so pleased by his team’s work ethic, which he said will have to improve if the Trojans are going to make another championship run this season.
“We’ve got to put more hard work in,” Cobian said. “The schedule only gets harder from here.”|
Castle Park defeated host Mar Vista, 3-1, on Tuesday to improve to 10-2-1 on the season. The Trojans are chasing San Marcos (11-1-2) for the best record among Division II teams. Also in contention for top post-season seeds are Mater Dei Catholic (5-3-3), Bishop’s (3-5-2) and Francis Parker (6-2-4). Olympian (5-8-2) is currently ninth overall in the division power rankings.
Twelve teams in the division qualify for the playoffs.
“Our goal is a better finish than last year,” said Cobian, whose team finished runner-up to Bonita Vista in the Grossmont Holiday Tournament during the winter break. “Our main focus on our attack last year was Felipe Liborio, but he got injured the second game into league play. He was averaging three goals a game, and that really hurt our attack.
“We’re more of a complete team all-around this season. We’ve gotten some guys back who didn’t play much last season but who have helped us this season.
“We’d like to finish at the top of our league (Metro-Pacific League), but it’s going to be tough with the other teams that are in it. Chula Vista (10-2-2 after Tuesday’s clutch 1-0 win at defending Southern California Regional Division II champion Southwest) is the class of the league at this point of the season and Hilltop is also solid. We’ll have to finish ahead of both if we want to claim that banner.”
Olympian has qualified for the playoffs in each of the past three seasons. Eagles coach Sergio Villalva remains optimistic the best days are still ahead for his team this season.
The Eagles kicked off Metro-Mesa League play Tuesday with a 1-0 loss to visiting Otay Ranch.
“We’ve got to clean up some of our mental errors,” Villalva said. “We’ve played some good teams this season, and feel we can beat anyone.”
That was evident in the match against the Trojans.
The teams battled to a 2-2 halftime standoff, with Castle Park holding the early territorial advantage before the Eagles took charge in the second half. However, the momentum in the game clearly swung back to the Trojans after an injury forced Olympian goalkeeper Steven Williams to leave the pitch with about 10 minutes to play.
Castle Park found its offensive spark again and produced several near misses before finally scoring the game-winner on a far post shot by Dominguez.
Miguel Alvarez and Alan Aguayo each scored first-half goals for the Trojans; Alan Gutierrez scored both Olympian goals.
“We started out dominating,” Cobian said. “The first 10 minutes we missed four goals. That set the whole tone there. If you let a team hang around, it only gives them more confidence. The second half we played horrible and got out-played and out-hustled. We were fortunate to get the win.”
Castle Park faces another divisional rival this Saturday when it travels to Mater Dei Catholic for an 11 a.m. match. The Trojans play at San Ysidro on Tuesday, Jan. 27, before hosting South Bay League leader Montgomery (9-3-3) on Thursday, Jan. 29.
Castle Park kicks off league play with a home match against Hilltop (4-4-5) on Feb. 3.
Getting their kicks
•Mater Dei Catholic edged Bonita Vista, off to a 9-3-3 start this season, by a 1-0 score in Tuesday’s Metro-Mesa League opener.
•Chula Vista, the top team in the section’s Division I power rankings, edged Southwest on a goal by Isai Aguila in the 40th minute in a match-up of top 10 ranked teams. The Raiders, who graduated 16 seniors off last year’s state championship team, dropped to 6-5-2 on the season but remain in playoff contention. The top eight teams in Division I qualify for the Open Division playoffs.
