On Feb. 15 a California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) soccer game was in place at Bonita Vista High’s (BVH) newly renovated Baron stadium. This game was between BVH and Orange Glen High School (OGHS) with an end result of 2-1, BVH as the winning team. Even though the game was close and very competitive, BVH still took the game and is on their way to becoming CIF champs.

Coaches, families and players all anticipated a marquee matchup in between two in-form teams. Assistant coach to both junior varsity and varsity, Brian Berman had also anticipated for BVH to perform quite well in hope that they also take the victory.

“I wanna win but just having a good game is fine by me. I’m just looking forward to us playing well and putting on a good show for the fans. Just to play good soccer and be respectful and good people,” Berman said.

The game started off intense with an attempt of a goal to be made in the first minute. However, that goal was blocked by the BVH goalie. The ball was knocked out of bounds by BVH players, so the ball was thrown back in by OGHS.

For most of the game BVH was keeping high pressure defense on OGHS so it was a bit difficult for OGHS to make any kind of significant plays. However after the first 11 minutes the first goal was made by OGHS. This goal didn’t deter BVH, however, it instead motivated players to do better such as forward and senior Esteban Salais (16).

“It [the goal] was pretty intense. I mean, we started off slow, but we were the better team in the end and we’re just doing what we do,” Salais said.

OGHS was definitely picking up their pace as well. They were using a lot of strategies that BVH didn’t seem prepared for at first such as how they got the ball around. OGHS used a lot of headbutts in their strategy to get the ball around as most of the OGHS players were quite tall. 

“Honestly, the other team surprised me. You know, they’re the bottom of the season, but they still came out. They surprised us,” middle forward and senior Luis Diaz (6). “That’s why they got us early in the game.” 

The game continued to be a back and forth of who’s controlling the ball for the first half until it ended with no goals from either side. This however changed when OGHS got penalized, and BVH got a free shot which they made a goal off of. This resulted in a tie of the score and put players, coaches and the audience on edge.

“So at that point I think we were still pretty stressed, especially since a one-to-one tie in soccer is very unexpected and anything can happen at that point,” Berman said. “So, [we were] very stressed at that point, still all the way up until the end it was very intense.”

In the later part of the second half, BVH put on high pressure and had great defense against OGHS which prevented them from scoring any more goals. BVH then ended up scoring the game winning goal at the twenty third minute mark of the second half. This goal was assisted by the wing players and made in by Salais.

“Our winger crossed it in, he hit it, the keeper blocked in, then he was able to come back and score it, in his own way. So that was pretty good for our team,” Diaz said.

White the time was slowly running out, a fight did end up breaking out on the field and the reason for this was because there was a little salt emanating from OGHS. Regardless of this aggression, it marked the end of an incredible game that was very intense and led on to the sportsmanlike handshake.

“It happens because they are the losing team. They were talking smack the whole game and then they were mad that they lost. So they started coming after our players and they tried to start something, but at the end of the day, they’re the ones going home, not us” Salais said.

Besides that altercation the game ended with no hitches and the night came to a good end. Most players, coaches, and audience members were satisfied with the ending of the game and were excited to see the continuation of the CIF playoffs. 

They [OGHS] were very good, and they put up a very good fight. I believe they were second in their league, so they very well deserve that, from what I’ve seen today. The playoffs are gonna be like that for the rest of the time. So I expect most teams to be at our level or maybe even better, but hopefully we find ways to pull through,” Berman said.