Finding their stride
BOYS SOCCER The Brahmas 3-4 record in the preseason leaves room for improvement.
Senior midfielder Colin Innis is one of the fourteen seniors on the team.
December 14, 2017
The Diamond Bar High School boys soccer team have rebounded from a poor start, winning three games in a row after suffering four straight losses.
In the boys game against Los Altos, they were behind one goal in the first half but turned it around in the second by scoring three goals against the Conquerors. They went on to win their next two tournament games against St. Bernard and St. Paul, 14-2 and 5-0 respectively.
However, in the Brahmas’ first tournament match against La Serna, they were unable to score against the Lancers. In the following match against Arcadia, the boys pushed harder on defense, preventing the Lancers from scoring any goals in the first half. However, the Brahmas didn’t score either, and a tap-in by Arcadia in the second half led to a 1-0 loss for the boys.
“We have played below average. Our expectations were higher than the outcome of the game,” head coach Kemp Wells said before the team’s winning streak began.
It took the boys three games before they scored their first goal against Mayfair on a shot by senior captain Nicholas Wong in the first half of the game. However, the Brahmas still lost 3-1. They were unable to turn their losing streak around in their next game against Damien High School, losing 1-0.
“The non-league games are just to prepare us so that we can hopefully win a league championship,” Wells said. “It’s more about solving problems, finding the right person for the right position, and the right combination of players.”
Wells identified one of the main problems of the team as a lack of communication between players. He stated that the boys had been playing too much as 11 individuals rather than as a unit. Lack of communication on the field has also contributed to the difficulty of keeping a play flowing and passing information to other players.
Finding an effective combination of players is also a task the team and Wells have been trying to accomplish.
With an influx of new players who have moved up from junior varsity and a loss of seniors, the preseason matches have been an opportunity for Wells to try different formations for the Brahmas.
“We are not sure who is going to be playing where, so Coach Wells has been making sure that we all have a basic understanding of each position in case we are called onto the field in a position we are not used to,” Wong said via message.
Moving up senior co-captain Peter Larcheveque from defense to midfielder has helped the team offensively, but has caused a drop in the team’s defensive skills at the start of the season. Wells stated that Larcheveque had anchored the defense last year, and with the loss of a talented outer back to graduation, the team has shown a lack of defensive strength in their four losses.
“We still started with three guys on the backline that were very strong. We just need to find that right fourth [player],” Wells said.
The Brahmas will compete in one more tournament match before heading into their preseason games.
