Boys’ soccer: Falcons look to continue early successes

Despite a strong preseason and successful performances in the first half of El Camino league games with a record of 3-2-1 as of Jan. 22, the boys’ soccer team sees room for improvement.

The team started the league season with a losses to Monta Vista 5-1 on Jan. 6 and Los Altos 5-3 on Jan. 13. However, they made a strong comeback along the way as they defeated Milpitas 9-1 on Jan. 8, Wilcox 4-3 on Jan. 22 and Cupertino 4-0 on Jan. 25 while additionally tying a game against Lynbrook on Jan. 20.

Although sitting in third position in the El Camino League, the team is hoping to improve with each game in order to make it into the CCS playoffs. One specific way they are looking to improve is by beefing up their defense.

“Our main goal for this season is to make it to the next division as we have worked hard throughout trainings and matches to maintain a [good] record,” senior captain and defender Romteen Masoumi said. “Even if we win score lots of goals, it won’t help if we let in a lot as well.”

Despite early losses, the team is still scoring a lot. Leading the team with twelve goals, junior striker Kevin Yu is hoping to pave the way for success.

“Although of course our goal is to make it to the playoffs, I also want our team as a whole to improve,” Yu said. “A lot of seniors will be leaving [next year], [and] we need to prepare for [that].”

The team has also taken new approaches to improve the team as a whole. With returning coaches Chris Stott and Alex Booth in their second season at the school, they have successfully worked their way onto the team. These coaches have established weekly team dinners in hope of encouraging team bonding as a whole.

“I think that the team dinners are crucial because it allows us to bond and improve our team chemistry, which I think has a pretty big impact on the field,” senior midfielder Connor Buss said. “During previous seasons, I thought that our team seemed segmented into different friend groups or classes and [that] this was partially because we never went out of our way to bond as a whole team.”

Looking forward to the rest of the season, the boys are  training extra hard at practices as fitness training increases and want to improve on their technical abilities with the ball, said Yu.

Due to printing deadlines, the Falcon was unable to cover the games against Monta Vista and Milpitas on Jan. 27 and Jan. 29 respectively.