The Diamond Bar High School boys soccer team has established a firm grasp on how to succeed in the Mt. Baldy League.

The boys are currently 9-7-2 in the season and are playing against Ontario today.

“The league this year is definitely more challenging than last year,” senior captain Dwight Ritchie said. “We have not faced many of the teams in our league this year, but this team definitely has the talent to come out on top.”

The team is still working on improving movement off the ball and finishing their shots properly.

“We still need work on communication, particularly on the back end,” head coach Kemp Wells said. “Our defense has potential to be very strong. Individually, they are all very solid players. If they communicate and work together better, they can be one of the stronger defenses in the league.”

Ritchie also feels the team needs to improve in putting away goals when given the opportunity to do so.

“Our offense has many opportunities to score and we really need to put those chances away when we are given them,” Ritchie said.

However, with the boys’ ability to create multiple opportunities for shots in a match, the majority of the team’s wins before and during the league have been been won by large margins.

They defeated Cerritos 6-2, Chino 3-0 and Ontario 3-1.

“We have a team that overall has some pretty good balance to it,” Wells said. “In a couple of spots, our twos, coming off of the bench, aren’t that far behind the ones.”

In the Ontario Christian Tournament, the boys went 1-3, losing to Troy, Riverside Prep and Ganesha. In the game against Ganesha, the team lost in a shootout, 4-3.

 “We just didn’t play very well. We gave up some bad goals early in both games and after we gave up bad goals early we couldn’t recover,” Wells said.

Wells still has high expectations for the team despite their performance at the tournament.

“Hopefully getting some players back and a little more focus and drive for winning league, that tends to be a little more important for nearly every aspect of our game, than just playing in a tournament,” he said.