By Amanda Newell
Staff Writer
After 20 minutes of overtime, the Mira Costa boys soccer team lost 2-1 to Leuzinger High School on Jan. 17, making the boys overall record for the season 5-5-4 and 0-1-2 for Bay League.
The game began with Costa controlling the game with multiple passes up from their midfielders. The defense was able to stop Leuzinger’s forwards in their tracks and kept them from having any shots on goal.
“Our defense has been really solid for us,” junior Grant Southwood said. “We do a good job at keeping the offense from spreading out.”
The key to Costa’s strong defense against Leuzinger, senior Teddy Sampson, stopped multiple shots on goal throughout the first and second half. His saves gave the boys a chance to come back and gave them momentum going into overtime.
“It could have been a totally different game if Teddy hadn’t stepped up,” Southwood said.
Thirty minutes into the first half, sophomore Chase Sandera, shot low to the corner and scored thanks to an assist from senior Ramsey Zein. Costa continued to control most of the half by keeping the ball in Leuzinger’s half of the field.
“When we had our chances to score, we did a good job of finishing the ball,” Southwood said. “We could have used the outside wings more, though.”
At the end of the first half, Leuzinger was able to score on a cross with seven minutes left in the half. Although Costa fought hard throughout the game, Leuzinger’s bad field condition made it harder on Costa to succeed.
“Besides not working together, our biggest challenge was bad field condition,” senior Jess Chamberlain said. “We’ve been playing on turf for the past few weeks, so it was hard to not make as many mistakes.”
Costa continued to fight in the second half while being tied with Leuzinger at 1-1. Costa held Leuzinger offensively and had many chances to score as well. By the end of regulation, Costa was still tied with Leuzinger, and the game advanced into overtime.
Costa and Leuzinger went back and forth throughout overtime, but neither was able to score a goal. The match went into double overtime, and Leuzinger scored the winning goal in the last two minutes to end the game.
“Even though we lost, we know we fought hard all the way through the game,” Southwood said.
Two of Costa’s players, junior Henry Codron and senior Tomas Kral, recently changed schools, leading to the promotion of sophomores Sandera and Sebastian Thomas to play with the varsity squad.
“Bringing up the two really helped fill in the spots,” Chamberlain said. “They have transitioned smoothly from junior varsity to varsity, and I look forward to watching them improve.”
The Mustangs look to bounce back in their game against Peninsula at Costa today at 3 p.m.
“We improved on our possession of the ball,” said Chamberlain. “We have gotten a lot closer together as a team, and we’re getting a lot better.”
Leave a Reply