GILROY—The Pajaro Valley High boys’ soccer team on Wednesday hit a major speed bump on their quest to a fourth league title in the program’s history.
Gilroy High stunned the Grizzlies, 5-3, in Pacific Coast Athletic League Mission Division action, while holding junior Kevin Rincon scoreless for the first time in four games.
“It’s not our best game but it is what it is. We win some, we lose some,” Rincon said.
The Grizzlies (4-2-1) remain in second place behind Salinas High (6-1-0) in the league standings, while the Mustangs (3-2-2) sit in third.
Rincon, who has 22 goals this season, said he felt like they came into Wednesday night’s game without a sense of urgency.
In return, it resulted in them falling into a deep hole they couldn’t crawl back out of.
The Grizzlies allowed three goals in the first half, which was the first time they allowed that many since Salinas High did it in their first meeting on Jan. 21.
Pajaro Valley Coach Juan Roman said the early mistakes at the start of the game were too much for them to recover from.
“I got to give credit to Gilroy. They played really well and they needed this win just as we did,” Roman said.
The Mustangs were laser focused on Rincon, who didn’t score a goal for the first time since the Grizzlies lost to the Cowboys. He was double teamed for most of the game and had trouble getting off any clean shots.
“It was frustrating but I tried to use that as an advantage to get fouls,” Rincon said.
But the fouls weren’t getting called for Rincon. The Mustangs simply had a game plan that worked to stop No. 10 from scoring.
Gilroy coach Armando Padilla said it was a huge win in terms of seeking a postseason berth in the Central Coast Section playoffs. The top 2 teams in the PCAL-Mission automatically qualify for a playoff spot.
“Now we have to battle for that second spot,” Padilla said.
Senior Bryan Hernandez got things started on Wednesday with a goal in the 17th minute, while sophomore Jefferson Cruz extended the lead to 2-0 just four minutes later.
The Grizzlies cut the deficit in half in the 36th minute when junior Alan Bedolla knocked in his first goal of the night.
But the Mustangs regained a two-goal lead right before halftime when senior Carlos Andrade blasted a shot past Grizzlies’ senior goalkeeper Daniel Ulloa.
“In that first half, we had six players involved in the three goals,” Padilla said. “That makes me happy because that means we’re playing together as a team.”
Ramon made note of the mistakes. He said the markers didn’t pick up their mark and the loose balls off of rebounds weren’t cleared out of the zone, which resulted in goals for Gilroy.
“We actually pushed the ball out but then none of the other guys got the second ball and [Gilroy] did and they hammered it back in,” Ramon said.
Pajaro Valley played with some more urgency to begin the second half, keeping the ball inside Gilroy’s side of the pitch and setting themselves up with more scoring chances.
Sophomore Arturo Lopez capitalized on one of those chances with a goal in the 47th minute that cut the Mustangs’ lead to 3-2.
“We started playing a little harder and I felt like we should’ve started like that but like I said, it is what it is,” Rincon said.
However, the Grizzlies continued to fall victim to their own mistakes.
Senior Henrri Reyes Heleria took advantage of the blunders. He scored his first goal of the evening on a 30-yard strike in the 57th minute that went just above junior goalkeeper Martin Gonzalez.
Senior forward Davi Prado sealed the deal for the Mustangs, scoring the team’s fifth goal of the evening in the 65th.
“That really took any kind of chance from us right there,” Roman said.
Bedolla recorded his second goal of the game in the 75th minute but it wasn’t enough to overcome a hungry Gilroy team, which bounced back from a two-game losing streak.
Still, Rincon said they’ve come a long way since the opening day of training camp, especially in the communication department.
He said they had trouble in the beginning of the season and the players were still getting used to each others tendencies on the field.
“Now we’re a team that knows what everyone does and we’re more comfortable with each other,” Rincon said.
Roman said there were plenty of question marks about the team prior to the start of the season including at the goalkeeper position.
Ulloa didn’t become eligible to play until January and Gonzalez arrived to the team just a week before the season opener on Nov. 26.
Roman mentioned another main focus this season was to play solid defense first and worry about everything else later.
Rincon and Bedolla have scored a combined 40 goals this season. But Roman said they’re leading the attack because the rest of the team works just as hard to set up scoring opportunities for their two aces.
“That allows them to push up and not have to worry about defensive duties so much,” Roman said.
Roman said he’s enjoyed watching Rincon and Bedolla score goals whether it’s in practice or in a game.
Yet, he mentioned he’d like to see the players learn how to move on when things don’t go their way.
“There’s always the next game,” Roman said. “Whatever happens from now, it’ll be a success to me.”
Pajaro Valley is seeking its first league title since the 2014-15 season when it won the now defunct Monterey Bay League Pacific Division.
The Grizzlies have won three league titles (‘07-08, ‘10-11,‘14-15) along with a CCS Division II championship in the 2007-08 season.
The Grizzlies are not out of the picture for a fourth league title. They also have at least a chance of clinching a CCS playoff berth by finishing second in the PCAL-Mission standings.
Roman said they have to look past Wednesday’s loss to Gilroy and now focus on the next task against Salinas.
“If we have any chance we have to beat them,” Roman said.
Next up, a rematch with Salinas on Friday at 6:45 p.m., followed by matchups against North Monterey County High on Feb.12 and the season finale two days later against Christopher at Watsonville High.
Rincon said he was confident they’d walk away victorious on Wednesday and the loss against Gilroy makes the road a bit tougher to travel. But he’s still confident that they can go all-out the rest of the way.
“We can still make it to CCS, it’s what we want,” Rincon said. “This is not going to stop us from trying to beat Salinas and the other teams that are left.”
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Editor’s Note:This article will be published in the Feb. 7 edition of The Pajaronian.
