By Amanda Newell
Staff Writer
The Mira Costa boys soccer team prevailed in its CIF wild card win against Alto Loma High School in Rancho Cucamonga on Feb. 14.
Junior Travis Bradford gave the Mustangs the 1-0 win with his goal late in the game. The boys finished their Bay League season in fourth place and with a record of 8-7-9 and are headed to the CIF first round against number-one seed Servite High School.
“We did really well coming together as a team today,” junior Zach Primm said. “Our defense was especially strong, there were no mistakes, and most importantly we got a win.”
With its tough defense the whole game, Costa was able to hold Alto Loma scoreless. Senior goalie Teddy Sampson led the Mustangs’ defensive effort with seven saves, leading to his sixth shutout on the season and the team’s eighth.
Along with great defense, Costa’s offense was aggressive and maintained possession of the ball throughout most of the game. The offense has improved tremendously from the beginning of the season and continues to do so.
“We struggled in the beginning of our season with scoring,” senior Jess Chamberlain said. “We have really improved in possession of the ball and making crosses for scoring opportunities.”
Although the team had its ups and downs throughout Bay League, the boys continue to work on their offensive and defensive game plans and have high hopes heading into CIF.
“Our Bay League record was good but did not reflect all of the team’s skills,” Chamberlain said. “In the last few games before this we really put our all into it, and we didn’t give up. It was a great way for us to end Bay League and lead into CIF.”
The boys have already had many improvements from when they started in December, including ball possession and control. With this skill improved, the team has had more scoring opportunities as well as a stronger offense in general.
“We’ve improved by keeping the ball more often,” Sampson said. “We’ve been doing our best to score on set plays, which contributed to our win in this game.”
Costa plans on applying these improved skills on its CIF playoff run to finish off the Mustangs’ season. By maintaining ball possession, strong defense, diligent offense and working on its scoring plays, the team has high hopes to not end their season any time soon.
“In CIF, we just need to show up ready to play and get pumped,” Primm said. “If we want to succeed in CIF, we need to improve in consistency as a team.”
The boys’ first CIF game was played in Servite on Thursday against Servite High School on the road. The results of the game were unavailable due to the time of publication.
“In order to succeed in CIF, we need to take every chance we have at scoring,” Sampson said. “We need to take it one game at a time and have fun with it along the way.
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