Mira Monte's magical girls soccer season continues in San Francisco on Thursday
Mar. 2—The Mira Monte girls soccer team used a familiar formula on Tuesday, and as a result the team is playing in the Northern California Regional semifinals.
The Lions' leading scorers, senior forward Angie Rodriguez and sophomore midfielder Kim Ledezma each had first-half goals, something that has become a regular occurrence for No. 5 Mira Monte, and the team's reliable defense took care of the rest, posting a 2-1 victory at No. 4 Exeter, the Central Section Division III champion.
Now Mira Monte's magical season shifts to another road test, this time a 3 p.m. match-up at top-seeded San Francisco-University on Thursday. The team bus was scheduled to leave the school at 6 a.m. Thursday morning.
"I really think that the way we are playing ... I know we're playing a good team, but we're going up there to win the game," Mira Monte head coach Miguel Rico said. "We can't just say we're going to go just for the trip."
Rodriguez now has 46 goals in 28 games this season, and has added 22 assists to tally 114, both school records. Ledezma, who is joined on the team by sisters, senior Alexa and freshman Yoselin, controls the offense and Rico considers her the heart of the team. She as 20 goals and 22 assists
The dynamic scoring duo is just part of an amazing turnaround for a team that won just six games last season and finished a distant fifth in Southeast Yosemite League play in Rico's first season as Mira Monte head coach.
The disappointing finish set in motion a complete overhaul from a preparation standpoint. The Lions increased its weight-training efforts and several of the players began playing in off-season leagues, according to Rico. With just two players with club experience, that was imperative.
"I always say when you're going in that first year is mostly a transition year because you have to let the girls know this is how we want to play," Rico said. "And if they're used to another coach, they have to adapt to a different style of game, different discipline and you have to get the girls to play together."
The transformation has led to results never seen in the school's girls soccer program.
The Lions enter Tuesday's play with a 26-2-3 record — the most victories in school history, a season that includes an undefeated run through South Yosemite Horizon League, and the program's first Central Section championship and state playoff victory.
The team has done so with a balanced attack featuring plenty of scoring and a defense that has registered 20 shutouts, a credit to the team's goalkeeper Jaay Galeas, and defenders Alexa Ledezma, Brianna Sanchez, Izel Herrera and Jenny Gonzalez, among others
The defensive success also has benefitted from the Lions' ability to control the ball on offense, something Rico and his coaching staff have preached all season.
"The best defense so they don't score on us is ball possession," Rico said. "If you have the ball on offense, the other team's not going to be able to score on you."
Rico is also quick to share his success with his assistant coaches Moises Rodriguez and Celia Rangel, and trainer Sam Patton.
"I have a good group of people behind me," said Rico, who previously coached at Golden Valley and Ridgeview before coming to Mira Monte six years ago as a JV coach. "We're all head coaches. On paper, I'm the head coach, but I look at them as my equals and whatever decisions we want to make, we're all three together."
Now the Lions will look to extend their season. A victory on Thursday would push the team into Saturday's NorCal title game, which would be hosted by the winner of the other semifinal, No. 3 Redding-University Prep and No. 2 Colfax.
"We've already made history, winning our first league title, winning Valley and then defeating the D-III champion as a Division V team," Rico said. "We have to go up, and in our mind we're going to play our game and try to play them as well as we can."
