Boys Soccer: Foothill Wins First League Game

Foothill 2, Amador Valley 1

The Star: Foothill’s Jared Chinn scored a goal and had an assist.

The Turning Point: Chinn’s goal in the first half gave Foothill a 2-0 lead.

The Quote: “This year we have no excuses, we have a lot of seniors and we were happy to at least get up early on them,” longtime Foothill coach Chuck Lemoine said.

What's next? Foothill plays at San Ramon Valley Thursday at 6 p.m., and Amador Valley plays at Granada on Thursday at 6 p.m.

Bottom Line: A 2-0 lead proved to be the difference for Foothill as Amador struck for a goal early in the second half.

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The boys soccer team has been through some rough times lately. The Falcons went winless in East Bay Athletic League play last year and had yet to record a league win entering Tuesday’s match at .

“This year we’ve been so close and for whatever reason we haven’t gotten it done,” longtime Foothill coach Chuck Lemoine said.

Well, it finally came Tuesday with a 2-1 win against an Amador Valley team which has also struggled in league play this year.

The Falcons got a goal from Luis Castillo in the 21^st minute with an assist from Jared Chinn and then Chinn scored the team’s second goal in the 23^rd minute that proved to be the difference in a highly competitive match.

“That 2-0 lead could work either way,” Lemoine said. “That’s a tough lead to hold. If we could have pushed one early in the second half to make it 3-0, that would have been big. But I thought we played fairly well in the first half.”

The win is also the first over Amador in seven years.

Foothill, which is 5-8-2 overall, is now 1-5-1 in EBAL action. But don’t be fooled by those records. The Falcons have the ability to play with anyone and proof of that came on Jan. 6 when they tied league-leader and one of the top teams in the nation – California, 2-2.

Castillo’s goal was nifty as he beat a defender and then juked the goalie for a left-footed shot into the back of the net.

Chinn’s goal was quite impressive, a top-shelf shot from 25-yards out.

The win snapped a five-match winless streak for Foothill, which carries a plethora of seniors. The Falcons went 0-9-5 in EBAL play a year ago. Their last win came Dec. 11 against Tennyson in a non-league match, 4-3.

Amador falls to 5-11-1 overall and 0-7 in EBAL play. The Dons have had struggles of their own with just one goal scored in the last seven matches. They have lost four in a row. Their last win came against Newark on Dec. 28 in non-league play, 1-0.

A lot of that is attributed to a very young team.

The Dons have five seniors, four of which see significant action, five sophomores and the rest of the squad is juniors.

“Mostly I tell them that they have to play for 80 minutes,” Amador coach Ken Villegas said. “We’ve got youth issues, but at this level you got to play like seniors. And there’s some growing pains.”

One of those youngsters, a junior to be exact, came through early in the second half when Dane Shaffer cut Foothill’s lead to 2-1 with a goal in the 45^th minute.

Amador had some opportunities to tie the game in the second half.

In the 56th minute, Thomas Jangigian’s penalty kick sailed over the goal. Less than a minute later, Shaffer’s shot hit the right post.

 In the 70th minute, Jason Chow had a breakaway but his shot was right into the hands of Foothill goalie Josh Cho. And in the final minute of the match, Chow had another shot at the goal but it ricoched off a Foothill player.

“In the second half we showed a sense of urgency that comes with a mature team. We have to play every match like that. In this league there are no easy teams.”

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Foothill 2, Amador Valley 1

Scoring

21:14 – Foothill, Luis Castillo (Chinn)

23:48 – Jared Chinn (unassisted)

45:14 – Dane Shaffer (unassisted)

Shots: Foothill 8, Amador 7. Saves: Josh Cho (F) 3, Jack Rogers (AV) 4.

Records: Foothill 5-8-2, 1-5-1 EBAL; Amador 5-11-1, 0-7 EBAL.

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