“I expect the boys will bond as a unit, play hard together, and win league again.” —Assistant Coach Christopher Valencia
Coming off a loss against Monrovia High School, the Diamond Bar High School boys soccer team came out of the gates strong, demolishing the Whitney-Cerritos High School Wildcats 4-0 in a home preseason match on Dec. 6.
In the first half, DBHS started out well, determined to not allow any shot attempts by the Wildcats. The Brahmas had possession the majority of the match and had numerous chances to score a goal. In the first half, junior Kelly Craft got past the defenders and made the first goal of the evening giving them the early lead.
DBHS played equally as well on both offense and defense. “I was impressed with the overall play of the team; we scored early in the game which allowed everyone on the team to play. Everyone played very well today,” Assistant Coach Christopher Valencia said.
The Wildcats started the second half much stronger, but the Brahmas continued their swarming defense. “I have high expectations for every game because we practice hard, we have very talented student athletes, and we have a large number of varsity starters from last year’s winning team,” Valencia commented.
Senior co-captain Gabe Brown scored the third goal of the evening after a miss off a free kick attempt, increasing the lead to 3-0. “We did better and finally put the ball into the net. We passed much better,” Coach Kemp Wells said.
At this point, the Wildcats seemed to have lost all hopes of winning as they started to play chippy, committing hard fouls. Despite this, sophomore Andre Gamboa scored the fourth and last goal of the match. DBHS wrapped the game up with the 4-0 lead and went home with a blowout victory.
Senior co-captain Kase Vollebregt and the Brahmas dismantled the Wildcat defense through fluid passing. “We connected our pass better, but we just need to finish better,” Vollebregt said.
The Brahmas finally added a win into their overall record, stretching it to 1-2-1. This was a much needed win as it restored the team’s confidence heading into the season. “I expect the boys will bond as a unit, play hard together, and win league again so we can have back to back on our league championship tee shirts,” Valencia said.
If anything needed to be improved upon, it would be the team’s lack of finishing ability. The Brahmas missed a total of 40 shots. However, 20 of them missed the goal entirely while the other 20 were saved by the goalkeeper.
Last year, DBHS stunned the Hacienda League when it went a whopping 11-0-1 and won the league title. With many returning players from last year, the Brahmas are set to defend the title and once again make a run at CIF. After losing in the second round of CIF last year, the team is determined to make a much deeper run and eventually win CIF this season. Led by senior co-captains Brown and Vollebregt, DBHS will undoubtedly have another successful season.
