As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the SBHS boys soccer team stood strong in the face of defeat. Although their season had come to an end, the speculation was just beginning; what’s next for Nosotros? “We just gotta keep working hard and working with the incoming freshman and sophomores for next year…We’re gonna have a lot of spots open, so we just need players to be on top of their game,” said sophomore goalkeeper Sammy Ceballos. Senior captain Jeremy Lopez agreed saying “ Honestly I feel like they’ll adjust well because a lot of them will be the juniors from this year so they’ll have good chemistry in addition to the underclassmen coming up”

As far as this season is concerned, the Dons had a league record of 8-4-2, making them 4th in the Channel League. Going into the playoffs, they were slated to play Geffen Academy, a  team they ended up beating 3-2 on the road. Unfortunately, round two proved to be too much for the squad as they lost 0-1 to Animo Leadership, the team that went on to win it all and become the CIF Southern Section Division 3 champions. A home game for the Dons, they stuck it out until the end, but a second half goal by Amino secured the win. “We had a great season, I feel like it ended in a way that nobody wanted it to end, in a way nobody expected it.” Said striker Jesus Miranda. Center-midfielder Eli Myers agreed, saying, “Obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted it to– because we wanted to win it all– and we lost at home, but we had all the fans behind us and it felt really good.” When asked to reflect on the season as a whole, Myers replied, “I was happy that we worked hard all throughout preseason, and throughout the season and I was proud of what we accomplished in the end.” Lopez added to this sentiment saying “I think the season went great compared to last year because we didn’t do that well previously” In terms of how it ended Lopez said “although it didn’t finish how we wanted to, we still had a fun time and made a lot of memories.”

Seniors this year, Miranda and Myers both put up outstanding numbers with Miranda scoring 16 goals through 23 games and Myers dominating the midfield. In addition to this, their efforts on the field earned them first team all-channel league this year. At center back, Lopez earned second team all-channel league as well. All three hope to continue soccer throughout college with Myers saying, “I’m just gonna go wait on my admissions for college and then hopefully walk on.” Lopez agreed saying “my plan is to walk on to a college team and if that doesn’t work then I’ll try to go international and go to my motherland of Guatemala.” Miranda, on the other hand, plans to attend city college and play for the Vaqueros. As previously stated, the Dons will be losing over half their team this year and because of this the future of Nosotros remains uncertain. As Miranda said “I don’t know we’ll just have to see…”

The boys huddle up before a CIF game. [Image Courtesy of Randy Myers]