St. Mary's boys soccer the team to beat in San Joaquin County
St. Mary’s is known to be the top school in most sports in the 209, but boys' soccer was not one of those sports.
Until this season.
On Friday, the Rams took down Tracy to earn their ninth straight win in the Tri-City Athletic League. The 1-0 gritty victory further solidified their first league championship in over 20 years.
“All the stars must line up to have a championship team like this; and for us this season, it has lined up just right,” St. Mary’s co-head coach Ramin Manshadi said. “We have been working hard over the last two years. We have gone through growing and rebuilding pain.”
Creating a winning environment
St. Mary’s only won one league game last year. After this win, they have a 9-0 league record and are just a game shy of a perfect record. A key to turning things around for them was reaching out to students from the school who played club soccer. This gave them four speedy and talented players to add to talent returning from last season.
Another reason behind the success is creating a winning and close-knit atmosphere. According to Manshadi, that team culture is also what gets them out of close-game situations, such as the second meeting with the Bulldogs.
“Our players were not in sync but I think they rose to the occasion,” he said. “ We have on many occasions. We’ve been down by one goal and then came back. I’m sure whoever we are playing, we end up playing up to their level.”
This go-round, senior Leo Ponce was the Ram to save the day. He scored the lone goal of the match after numerous botched goal attempts throughout the match. Although St. Mary’s doesn’t release stats, Ponce is known on the team as their go-to scorer.
“It felt really good to score the only goal,” Ponce said. “It was a good game and honestly I was nervous, but we all went at it and we took the dub.”
End of the road for Bulldogs and pending playoffs for Rams
Snatching wins right from under their opponents is something the Rams are used to this season. Tracy didn’t make it easy though, as it held a good chunk of momentum during the first half.
“Tonight was about playing for some self-respect, since they knew they were eliminated from the playoffs after our loss to Lodi on Wednesday,” Tracy’s head coach Michael Aguilera said. “We wanted to make sure we don’t end the season on a bad note. It was a very good game and I’m very proud of them tonight.”
While the Bulldogs close out the 2022-'23 season following the loss, the Rams are setting their sights on the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section Division 1 playoff. Their final game of the season will be their senior night against Lodi at 7 p.m. on Monday at home.
“Traditionally, St. Mary’s isn’t a soccer power,” Manshadi said. “We’ve been able to turn that around because our culture has been outstanding. From the coaches to the players we are united but even with the best of teams, you have to have luck. And we’ve been really lucky.”
Record reporter Shannon Belt covers sports. She can be reached at sbelt@recordnet.com or on Twitter @ShannonBelt3. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: St. Mary's boys soccer the team to beat in San Joaquin County
