Varsity Boys Soccer secured a 2-0 victory against Evergreen Valley High School Cougars on Monday, Jan. 20, a chilly and windy holiday with few attendees. The Matadors started this season strong with eight wins, making them second in the league.
Within the first two minutes of the game, the Matadors broke through the Cougars’ defense, as a throw-in by senior Connor Kwan allowed them to drive the ball down the field, assisting senior Yichen Gao with an open shot. The Matadors continued to maintain momentum in the first half, as freshman Hossein Dastgah drove the ball down the field, assisting Gao with another open shot.
Despite a successful first half, the Matadors failed to outmaneuver EVHS’s defense in the second half and were unable to put any points on the board. Assistant coach Michail Tzankov had expected the Matadors to dominate against the lower-ranked EVHS. While Tzankov says the team started off strong with the first goal, he admits that they did not perform to their fullest potential.
“I expected us to control the game,” Tzankov said. “I expected us to win by a lot. In a way, my expectations were met. I think a lot of players had a good game, but I think as a team, and overall, I don’t think that they achieved what they should have achieved today. The potential of the squad is much higher than what they showed.”
As both teams traded possessions for most of the second half, senior and goalkeeper Finnegan Hassy was responsible for key saves to prevent EVHS from catching up. He echoes Tzankov’s sentiment that the team could have controlled the match more effectively with more possession and scoring as well as stiffer defense.
“We got the win, which is all we needed, but I feel like we could have played way better,” Hassy said. “We just played down to their level, so that’s why we only scored two goals.”
While EVHS threw in the towel with two minutes left on the clock, Tzankov had hoped that the Matadors could have “closed the game out a lot earlier.” Overall, though, he says a win is a win, but he hopes the team as a whole will step up against stronger adversaries.
“I think this team has the ability to completely take teams out of the game before the first half even ends,” Tzankov said. “I think sometimes the mentality and the effort may not be there, but I think when the time matters, that they’ve always shown up and done what they had to do. As you know, they’ve beat Cupertino 6-0 here at home.”