The Cupertino Courier

Matadors, Mustangs earn CCS soccer spots

By Dick Sparrer

The weather wasn't all that much better last week than it's been in recent weeks in the Santa Clara Valley. It was good enough, though, for area high school soccer teams to finish up their league seasons.

But then, it had to be--because the leagues are entering Central Coast Section play this week, and they had to determine where they stood in the regular season before they could figure out which teams would advance to the postseason.

They did, and the Monta Vista and Homestead boys' soccer teams have each earned CCS berths.

The Matadors finished second in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, with the Mustangs third, and that was good enough for each team to pick up a slot in the CCS Division I tournament.

The Matadors are the No. 11 seed in the tourney with a 13-8 record, and they'll open CCS play on Feb. 17 at Oak Grove, No. 6 seed at 10-3-5.

The Mustangs, meanwhile, are seeded No. 14 and will take their 9-7-4 season mark up against powerful Bellarmine on Tuesday. The Bells are seeded No. 3 with a 17-0-4 record.

Monta Vista clinched second in the division with a 2-1 win over Los Gatos on the final day of the regular season. Jacques Marriott had a goal and an assist to lead the Mats past the Cats. Bryan Purdy also scored a goal for Monta Vista, and Steven Waters had an assist.

The Mats, 8-4 in the division, had lost to Palo Alto 4-2 earlier in the week despite unassisted goals by Jeffrey Lin and Danny Wittmers.

Homestead finished the league season by losing two of three games. The Mustangs lost 3-2 to Saratoga and 1-0 to Los Altos. They did manage a tight 1-0 win over Milpitas on a goal by Nathan Vargas off an Omar Gusmao assist.

The Mustangs finished up 5-4-3 in the division.

In El Camino Division play, Cupertino finished the year 2-7-3 after losses to Mountain View (4-1) and Gunn (6-2). overrun soccer

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