After challenging regular season, Oakdale girls soccer ready to face playoffs head-on

The way the last three games have gone for the Oakdale High girls soccer team has left head coach Kico Monares wondering what the season could have been.

The Mustangs spent the majority of the campaign battling through players missing time with leg injuries, concussions and other injuries that kept players sidelined for periods of time while playing a schedule that included games against some of the top-ranked teams in the Sac-Joaquin Section.

Monares sought out the toughest competition, which included matchups against Inderkum, the section’s top team, Christian Brothers, the No. 7 Division III team, and Cosumnes Oaks, the No. 10 D-I team, all in the same tournament.

Oakdale was tested but made things difficult, losing to Inderkum and Christian Brothers 1-0 and tying with Cosumnes Oaks 1-1.

“That weekend, we were missing five starters,” Monares said. “I wish we were at full strength that weekend.”

Since that tournament, Oakdale has gone 9-4-2, moving players around and getting contributions from a core group of consistent leaders en route to its second straight season of 15 or more wins. The Mustangs finished the regular season claiming the Valley Oak League title, repeating as league champions for the first time in program history.

The injuries are no one’s fault. They happen in sports. “If we had our whole team from Day One, no injuries, no nothing, man, I’m very curious to see how we would have finished,” Monares said.

Oakdale, along with a number of other local boys and girls soccer teams, received its playoff seeding Wednesday afternoon. The soccer postseason starts Saturday.

After navigating through a tough nonleague schedule and a Valley Oak League gauntlet, the Mustangs received a No. 2 seed in the D-III tournament, securing home field advantage until the section title game at Cosumnes River College, should they advance. The Mustangs host No. 15 Ceres, the third-place finisher out of the Western Athletic Conference, at 6 p.m.

Oakdale started 3-1-1 in the Valley Oak League, arguably the toughest girls soccer league in the southern part of the section, but struggled to find consistency throughout league play until its final three matches, in which the team beat East Union, Central Catholic and Manteca to secure the league title.

Despite the Mustangs’ struggles, they remained consistent.

“We talked about just putting in the hard work, repeating as the VOL (champions), getting a number one or number two seed in playoffs and a blue banner,” Monares said. “They’re all realistic goals for us. The standard is just a little bit higher amongst the group because we were only five minutes away last year.”

“Last year” was both a positive experience and a learning lesson for the squad. Oakdale won a league title for just the second time in school history. The Mustangs advanced to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division III semifinals, where they played the eventual section and NorCal champion, Christian Brothers, in a close contest. The game was tied 0-0 until the Falcons scored on a penalty kick in the final five minutes of the match.

“That’s kind of another thing that we use as motivation because we were five minutes away,” Monares said.

Their goal this season is to write their names in the school’s history book again.

No Oakdale girls soccer team has won a section championship.

The Mustangs won nine nonleague games and worked their way from a 1-1-1 VOL record to first in the league with their star mostly sidelined.

Last season’s leading scorer and facilitator, Kyndra Obermeyer, played just four games early this season due to a knee injury. Obermeyer, The Bee’s 2023 soccer player of the year and a Stanislaus State commit, scored 30 goals and had nine assists in 20 matches as a junior.

In her absence, the team has gotten offensive production from players who Monares calls the team’s core. It’s a group highlighted by freshman and leading goal scorer Dakota Burford and senior assists leader Mia Peterson and her classmate Claire McGee Brown. A trio of juniors — Lyndee Cox, Kyra Binstock and Jocelyn Gradilla — also helped hold down the fort offensively and defensively.

“The biggest thing I am so proud of is that with all these injuries, with concussions, with injuries, with girls being sick, etc. we had a core of girls 100% committed that just kind of held the fort down,” Monares said. “When other starters went down, these girls were always available. That is the heartbeat for us. These girls put us in the situation to be here today.”

Obermeyer returned with a vengeance, scoring seven goals in the Mustangs’ final three VOL matches. Monares said Monday’s season finale against Manteca was the first time all season that the team has been fully healthy. After pulling out a 1-0 win in its first league matchup, Oakdale won Monday’s contest 3-1. Obermeyer scored twice and had an assist, and Burford scored a second-half goal.

The Mustangs and Buffaloes both finished with 6-2-2 VOL records, but because Oakdale won both league matchups, it gave them the head-to-head advantage, resulting in the No. 1 VOL spot and a better playoff seed.

“I felt we matched up well against Manteca and everybody was healthy,” Monares said. “Game 25 was the first time we had everybody healthy. And it’s obviously at the right time.”

Fully healthy and ready to improve on last season’s run, the team is anticipating Saturday’s matchup.

The players feel prepared because of the work they put in. It started with off-season 5:20 a.m. workouts and continued during the year with the addition of film study leading into game days.

It is all a product of a new era of Oakdale girls soccer, ushered in by a new standard.

“We put those standards on ourselves,” Monares said. “It’s something that we can speak on more internally. This is one of the better teams that I’ve coached. This is one of the better teams that I’ve had where a section championship is realistic.”