Golden Valley High boys soccer gears up for another run at CCC, section championships
Before taking the pitch, the Golden Valley High boys soccer team gathers and breaks the huddle by saying, “3-2-1 repeat!”
It’s a lofty goal, but one this group is focused on.
One year after winning the first Sac-Joaquin Section championship, the Cougars hope they are on a return journey to become the first Golden Valley team to repeat as Central California Conference champions and also bring home a second blue section banner.
“That desire to repeat as champions adds that much needed work ethic at practice and especially on match day,” said Golden Valley coach Lance Eber, whose been with the program for 15 years, including the past 11 seasons as the head coach. “I’ve got 13 seniors and 10 of them were on that squad from last year. They want to be champions as seniors just like last year’s six seniors.”
Experience and talent are a big reason the Cougars are off to a 13-1 start this season and have emerged as the class of the CCC once again with a 6-0 record in conference play.
The Cougars have veteran leadership that starts with a four-year varsity player in Manuel Zarate and three three-year players in seniors Carlos Miranda, Malachi Wright and Joshua Perez.
“This helps with the team cohesiveness in playing the style of soccer that we want to play.,” Eber said. “They know the system.”
In all, Golden Valley has 14 returning players on the roster. The majority of them not only play high school soccer, but they’re playing club soccer the other nine months of the year.
“The chemistry that we have, we’ve been together for a long time,” Miranda said. “It’s the same as last year. We work as a team, we make the goals together. We know how we play, we know each other, we try to encourage each other.”
The Cougars found themselves in a 1-1 tie midway through the second half against Merced in their last match on Thursday night. The Bears had energy and momentum on their side after junior Santiago Hernandez scored the game-tying goal in the second half.
However, Golden Valley kept the pressure on and Miranda delivered two second-half goals for a 3-1 victory.
Miranda has been on a scoring barrage this season, scoring 21 goals in the 14 matches.
“Carlos truly believes that he can score every single time that he gets the ball at his feet,” Eber said. “Add in his speed, he’s a threat with the ball any time that he has it in the attacking half.”
Jose Ontiveros has also averaged a goal per game with 13 goals in 13 games played. Jonathan Gomez has eight and sophomore Daniel Gaona seven.
The Cougars have received goals from 11 players this year with 15 recording an assist. The Golden Valley attack can come from anyone on the pitch.
“Jose and Jonathan and Carlos could switch positions across the top at any time during the match,” Eber said. “All three complement each other. All three are fast, all three believe that they can and should score every time they get the ball. But they each know that an assist is just as valuable as a goal.”
“When you’ve got three guys across the top that can score, they know the importance of the putting the ball in the net regardless of who that final person is that got it in there,” Eber added.
How dominant have the Cougars been?
They’ve outscored their opponents 20-2 in the six CCC games. Their goal differential on the season is 61-12.
Golden Valley is ranked No. 9 in the Sac-Joaquin Section overall by MaxPreps and No. 3 in Division II behind Jesuit (11-0-1) and Vacaville (7-1).
The Cougars had a feeling early they were going to do something special last year.
“We knew when the season started that we were going to be an amazing team,” Miranda said. “It was still very hard. We just had to work together, encourage each other and work as a team.”
Miranda says this year’s team wants to repeat as CCC and section champs and make an even deeper run in the regional playoffs.
“We have the same energy and same chemistry as last year,” Miranda said. “We want to do it again really bad. We’ve been together since we were little and this is our last year.”
