Alisal Suffers First Loss

After beating Watsonville the night before, the Trojans came back twenty-four hours later to play another game, this time against Harbor High School of Santa Cruz.  However, the outcome wasn't the same as with Watsonville.  The Trojans came out flat in the first half and gave up an early goal when the Harbor forwards got through an otherwise stingy Alisal defense. Sweeper Augstin Martinez was left in the back alone as a Harbor forward made a nice run on a ball down the line.  Augustin failed to close in on the forward and the Harbor player struck the ball and beat Manuel Velasquez in the upper left corner of the goal.  Alisal continued to look a little flat and flustered, and they could not equalize in the first half.

The second half was a little different for the Trojans.  They came out noticabley more aggressive and had some quick and frequent shots on goal.  But once again, the Alisal defense was beat on a through ball and Harbor put the ball past Velasquez once more.  Realistically, the Harbor forwards got through the Alisal defense on very few occasions, but they were an opportune team that made the most of their chances, scoring two goals on minimal chances.  

With twenty minutes to go, the Trojans finally got on the board as Benjamin Nunez scored his third goal in three games. Unfortunately, it proved to be too little too late as Harbor stole one from the Trojans on the Trojans' home field.   

The Trojans will travel to Yerba Buena H.S. on Nov. 29, to play Woodside H.S. in a first round game of the Homestead Cup. The Trojans will follow this game with a rematch against Harbor, as they were drawn in the same group of the first round of the Homestead Cup.  The rematch will once again be played at Alisal, and we will definitely be ready to avenge our loss to them.

I was impressed with the way the boys came out for the second half and how they had fixed many of the errors that plagued our first half performance.  We still have some finishing issues and some crossing issues, but we are definitely getting better as a team.  I look forward to seeing us grown as a team.  Alisal's record is now 2-1

Goal Scorers

Varsity Goal Leaders
Name Goals

1. Benjamin Nunez 3
2. Jorge Jimenez 1
3. Edelmar Medina 1

Alisal Varsity Dominates Watsonville

The Alisal Boys' Varsity Team earned its second victory in two tries by defeating the Watsonville Wildcats, 3-0, at Alisal on Nov. 24th. The Trojans continued their extremely aggressive, attacking style on defense and used the same tactics on offense to score three unaswered goals. Benjamin Nunez once again opened the score with his second goal in as many games, while Jorge Jimenez and Edelmar Medina each added second half goals to seal the victory and put an exclamation mark on a game that saw Alisal dominate from whistle to whistle.

Watsonville fielded a good team, as always, but at times against Alisal the Wildcats looked stifled and out of control. The Trojan pressure proved too much for them to handle as the Cats found themselves simply banging the ball out of their defensive area to avoid further damage.

Perhaps the most impressive thing for me was watching our "B" team go into the game, get over their nerves, control the game, and score a goal! Watching them score was incredible, and I was very proud of their performance, particularly that of Edelmar Medina, Miguel Salinas, and Jorge Jimenez. Miguel gave a beautiful through pass to Jorge Jimenez who beat their offside trap by coming in from behind, beating the goalkeeper, and hammering the ball in the back of the net. It was Jorge's first goal of the season. Miguel did a great job of controlling the middle, while Edlemar provided constant pressure on both sides of the ball.

The Trojans will try to repeat their performance on Nov. 25th, as they take on Harbor High School, back-to-back games for Alisal. It will be a test, but I believe my boys are up for the challenge. The J.V. boys will also be in action against Harbor. Coach Marquez has them playing well and as a team, and this will be a good challenge for their character.

First Victory of Season

Well, today our team made its season debut at home against Gonzalez High School.  The Gonzalez High School team was the Division II Champs two years ago, and they continue to field good teams for a small school.  Last year, Alisal's varsity team tied them at their home, 2-2. Tonight, the Trojans took home the victory 1-0.  We scored in the second minute of the game and basically held on to a one goal lead for seventy-eight minutes.  Benjamin Nunez scored the only goal of the game for his first of the young season.  We expect Benji to score a lot more goals as the season progressess.  We had standout performances from senior Bobby Perez, from Juniors Gerardo Vera and Edelmar Medina and Santos Ortiz, and great performance from junior midfielder Julio Tena. 

Gonzalez seldom reached our part of the field as we poured on our aggressive style of attacking the ball and keeping possession.  On our offensive end, we had a ton of shots on goal but could not find the back of the net.  I was really frustrated about this and gave my team a grade of F for this area of the game.  Overall, I rate our performance as a C+ performance.  We made some mistakes and got sloppy and out of control at times in the second half, but overall it was a decent performance for a team with no returning starters and for a team that played its first game together.  The majority of my boys have never played together, and since soccer is a game of team chemistry, we still have some ways to go in this area.  

We will go back to practicing and working on the things we have to.  I was a little concerned about our conditioning, but we looked aggressive and not at all winded.  We have some injuries to address, but we should be ok for the game at home against Watsonville on Monday, Nov. 24.  We look forward to see our fans at our games as we try to bring home a T-CAL Championship.  

On our J.V. front, the junior boys won their second game against the season against Gonzalez's J.V. team.  Alisal routed them 3-0 with a great offensive performance from Christian Hurtado, the junior forward.  The defense really held it down, too, for its second shut out of the season.  I really like the way the kids are working and Coach Marquez is doing a great job of training them and creating chemistry.  

Let's hope we can keep this up.  

2008-2009 Boys' SoccerSchedule

Date Opponent Place Time Teams
Nov. 21 Gonzalez Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var. J.V. (W) 3-0, Var. (W) 1-0
Nov. 24 Watsonville Alisal 6:00 Varsity only (W) 3-0
Nov. 25 Harbor Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var. (L) 2-1
Nov. 29 Woodside Woodside H.S. 1:45 Varsity (Homestead Cup) (L) 5-3
Dec. 2 Harbor H.S. Alisal 3:15 Varsity (Homestead Cup) (T) 2-2
Dec. 4 Monta Vista H.S. Monta Vista 3:15 Varsity (Homestead Cup) (L) 5-3
Dec. 6 Santa Clara H.S. T.B.A. 3:15 Varsity (Homestead Cup) (L) 1-0
Dec. 9 Everett Alvarez Alvarez 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var. (W) Everett Alvarez Forfeit
Dec. 11 Salinas H.S. Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Dec. 29 Los Gatos H.S. Los Gatos 1:00 Varsity
Dec. 30 St. Francis H.S. Alisal 1:00/3:00 J.V./Var.
Jan. 6 San Benito H.S. Hollister 3:30 J.V./Var.
Jan. 8 Bye Bye Bye Bye
Jan. 13 Palma H.S. Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Jan. 15 Gilroy Gilroy 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Jan. 20 N. Salinas H.S. N. Salinas 3:30 J.V./Var.
Jan. 22 Everett Alvarez Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Jan. 26 Salinas H.S. Salinas H.S. 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Jan. 29 San Benito Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Feb. 3 Bye Bye Bye
Feb. 5 Palma H.S. Palma 3:30 J.V./Var.
Feb. 10 Gilroy Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
Feb. 12 North Salinas Alisal 3:30/5:00 J.V./Var.
CCS Playoffs T.B.A.

In June of 2008, after being named the new Varsity boys head soccer coach at Alisal High School, the wheels in my head immediately began to spin and quckly turned towards planning.  I anxioulsy ran through the various issues that I could possibly face as the new coach: Would my team be as talented as teams from the last five years?  Will I keep the tradition alive by winning a championship?  Who will play for me?  Will the returning players respond well to me?

Well, with less than a week to go before the first game of the 08-09 season, the answers to these questions have come to light.  I have an extremely talneted team that is young and full of enthusiasm and passion for the game.  With approximately four seniors, one returning starter, our team is definitely on the young side, but not lacking in experience. And with this team, I truly believe we can keep alive the soccer winning tradition that has been prevelent at Alisal High School for many years.  This year's team is made up of a few players from last year's J.V. team, a few retuners, and a variety of other players that have come out of the woodworks this year, players that have played all of their lives but never for a high school team.  So far I have received the full respect from my players, and I believe they view me as an optimistic leader with a gentle but firm rule over the team.  They understand that I do what is best for the team and not what is best for me.  

We will be playing at Alisal High School on Friday, Nov. 21st, against Gonzalez High School.  Gonzalez is a Division II school, but they were champions two years ago and went to the semi's last year.  It is a respectable test for our team, and being that it is going to be our first game out of the gate, a tough one.  

I have to say that I am extremely excited and eager for the season to get underway.  I look forward to seeing my starting line-up, which as this time is still in the works, on the field and ready to be aggressive on defense and to score many goals on offense.  Our two main goals this year are to win our league championship and to win the first ever Central Coast Section Championship in school history.  Historically and traditionally, Alisal has always had incredible teams, at one time even being nationally ranked.  But there was always a psychological hump that prevented our teams from getting to the top.  In some regards, despite all the soccer that our boys have played througout their lives, they lack experience playing against teams outside of their own racial and technical make-up, teams in different socio-economic brackets, teams that have certain economic benefits.  I have made it a point over the summer to expose my players to soccer outside of Salinas. We had a busy summer with a lot of soccer played in other cities.  In addition, I have prepared myself by learning new mental and technical strategies.  This is not going to gurantee success, but I believe it gives us a better opportunity to succeedd.  we are training in all of these areas, and we hope the outcome is a positive one.  

Coach Cisneros