Four league games into the season, the Matadors have had resounding wins over most of their opponents. Even though they faced a disappointing 1-0 loss against Los Gatos, that one point is the only point scored against MVHS so far in the season. They added another win on Jan. 20 to their record by defeating Fremont 2-0.
The Matadors were third coming into this game against the second place Fremont High School, but the Matadors were able to hand Fremont their first loss and take over the spot in the standings. Strong defense on both sides led to a scoreless first half, but the Matador offense emerged in the second half to get two goals from junior Baris Demirlioglu and freshman Brad Ohadi to seal the 2-0 win over the Firebirds.
The game was even for most of the first half as the two teams exchanged chances in the beginning. As the game progressed, the Matadors were able to have greater possession of the ball, which led to more offensive pressure on their side. The Matadors hit the post twice in the first half, and were just unable to get the ball in the goal.
Late in the first half, junior Bobak Ohadi had a chance to score first, but hit the ball off the post. He would get another chance less than a minuter later, but shot it off the post again. By the end of the first half, the score remained 0-0.
The Matadors were able to have a strong start into the second half, which carried on for the rest of the half. Their offense relied on constant possession of the ball and triangle passing formations to break through the Firebirds defense. Eleven minutes into the second half, Demirlioglu finally broke the scoreless tie after coming off the bench and then scoring in the box off a solid pass from Brad Ohadi.
“We fixed a lot of stuff at half time and it really worked for us. We had over ten sick players so everyone just manned up. Our entire back line really stepped up,” Bobak Ohadi said.
Only four minutes later, Bobak Ohadi drove to the net for a scoring chance but was blocked by three Firebird defensemen leaving Bobak Ohadi hurt on the field. Originally the play was called a fair play, but then the referees changed the call to a penalty kick. Brad Ohadi would take the penalty kick for Bobak Ohadi and would beat the goalkeeper to make the score 2-0.
“We talked about patience and sometimes we might get unlucky. We hit the post three more times in the second half. You just keep going, you play our style, the possession style and we got it in a couple times,” said coach Pooya Hajjarian.
From there the Matadors will able to maintain the lead for the rest of the game, adding the third shutout out of four league games so far. With this win, the Matadors move ahead of the Firebirds to hold sole possession of second place.
The Matadors next home game will be against Wilcox on Jan. 23. at Homestead High School.
