Local Varsity Teams Look Impressive in Soccer

League action for the local prep school soccer teams in the Baldwin Park area is under way, where the hometown and the have been impressing fans so far this season.

The boys and girls soccer teams for both schools have met with early season success, according to local reports, the Sierra Vista girls team is coming off Montview League wins over  Gladstone and La Puente (3-5-2, 3-1) this week, 5-0 and 3-0 respectively.

In their most recent win over the visiting league rival Warriors on Thursday, Sierra Vista was powered by Sophomore Jessica Lopez’ two goals, improving the Dons’ overall record to 7-2-2 and their league mark to 4-0, and insuring first place in the standings.   

Earlier this season, The San Gabriel Valley Tribune  preps ranked both schools in their top 10 rankings for boys varsity soccer in the San Gabriel Valley.

Despite the fact they find themselves in third place of the Valle Vista League, the Braves (5-2-2, 1-1) are only one game behind Covina and Pomona, with plenty of games remaining on the schedule.

According to newspaper accounts, injuries kept the Baldwin Park boys from performing better in their own tournament co-hosted with Sierra Vista earlier this season, but the Braves have enough offensive weapons to contend again this year for another league title.

Since beating Northview 4-1 at home in mid December, the Braves suffered back to back road losses to Pomona and Salesian, before returning home Friday to play Cathedral.

Sierra Vista (8-2-2, 2-1-1) chasing first place Azusa, could have put some distance between themselves, Duarte and La Puente in the Montview League standings, as they visited the Warriors on Thursday afternoon, but after falling behind early in the game, could only muster a 4-4 tie.

The Dons were down 2-1 at halftime, but were able to send the game into overtime tied 3-3 with second half goals from sophomore Mario Saenz and junior Alexander Piceno.

Senior Rodolfo Rendon scored the tying goal in overtime from an assist by fellow senior Alberto Altamirano, but Sierra Vista coach Jose Rodriguez said he was not at all pleased with the result.

 “We didn’t show up today,” said Rodriguez who added he felt his team was flatfooted in the first half of play and failed to play at the level they are accustomed to.

“We played mediocre today, our finishing just hasn’t been there today. We played against a league rival and didn’t rise up to play our best. Not even in practice have we played that badly.”

Rodriguez said the Dons’ style of play is to start fast and to control the tempo of the game, neither of which he said the team did against La Puente.

“Our game is not kicking the ball up in the air and then waiting for them to make a mistake; we fell into their style of game. Whenever teams come to play Sierra Vista, they bring their “A’ game, so we have to rise up to that level, we gotta come in hungry.”

The Sierra Vista boys soccer team plays next against last place Ganesha in Pomona on Jan. 10, while the girls soccer team play the Giants at Sierra Vista on the same day.

Also on Tuesday, Baldwin Park’s girl’s varsity soccer team will try to score their first win of the season  against Covina at Traweek Middle School.