Varsity
JV
Varsity
The Varsity Boys Soccer team had one final league match of the season to face, a home game against the Santa Maria Saints on Friday. With this game came celebrations for the eleven seniors which would be departing the team after the end of the season. Festivities for the seniors included walking with their family, receiving flowers, and a special message about them and their future. After all the celebrations were over, the entire team had gathered to make one big final smash through a poster celebrating the graduating class of 2022, and after that, the kickoff was underway.
With kickoff underway, the teams began to battle it out for their third matchup of the season. The Bearcats came into the game with a 1-8 record in league, hoping to take down the Saints, who had a 7-2 record in league before the matchup. The Saints had come out strong into the first half, putting up a single goal to take the lead. They continued to hold this lead well into the second half, but the Bearcats were not ready to give up on their seniors. Late into the second half, the cats had fought back, and junior Adrian Cornejo put them on the board to tie the game, forcing it into overtime.
The overtime consisted of two short ten minute halves, with each team fighting to put up the most goals by the end of them. There was a lot of tension, excitement, fear, and anxiety in the air, as the home crowd cheered on their bearcats in hopes of giving them the extra boost to win. The Bearcats fought hard, but in the end gave up a single goal, which they could never recover from. The overtime ended, and the cats faced a devastating loss by 2-1 in overtime.
“They played well. I mean we’re playing against the league’s champs,” head coach Omar McPherson said. “This is like the league’s finals in terms of how we played. The boys have really played well all season. Tyler, Kai, Adan, we have a bunch of guys that are well, they’re playing great, absolutely great. This was just a really challenging season from a coach’s point of view as well as a players point of view.”
“Overall we played a great, exciting game against the league champions and it really could have gone either way in the end,” senior Evan Swettenam said. “This game was tough because we felt like we outplayed them but just had two moments where we made a mistake and conceded. It was great to have all the fans out there, and I think it really provided a huge boost to our team. We are hoping to have some fans come down to AG on Wednesday for our CIF game against the Eagles at 6pm.”
JV
Junior Varsity Boys Soccer was also playing its final game of the season at home against Santa Maria High School (SMHS). Through the first half, the game was rather even, with the first half of the game seeing much action from both sides, but only two goals from Santa Maria in the last minutes. Going into the second half, the Bearcats were determined to get on the board, and did not want to end up with another loss to them again this year.
The game was not over in the second half, as the bearcats had managed to put up a goal from sophomore Hector Toral, putting the cats on the board. Within the second half, though, the Saints had added two more goals to their lead, securing their third win of the season against the cats. By the end of the game, the Bearcats had ended up with a loss by a score of 4-1, and with that, the season was over for the JV boys.
“We did really well during the pre-season,” sophomore Skyler Lieber said. “We just had a bit of a rough go during league because of injuries and covid. Overall, though, it was a fun season with all the guys and I am glad I was a part of it.”
Photos by Conner Rocha
