Falcons knocked out of CCS, proud of exciting campaign

February 4, 2016 — by Anant Rajeev and Michelle Lee

The boys have led a strong campaign this season, but with the loss to Los Altos, the team is unlikely to gain enough playoff points in their upcoming games.

The boys’ soccer team fell 1-0 to Los Altos in a heartbreaking matchup on Feb. 3 in a game that all but knocked the Falcons out of CCS contention.

The boys have led a strong campaign this season, but with the loss to Los Altos, the team is unlikely to gain enough playoff points in their upcoming games.

The team began its league season with a 3-3-1 record, losing away at Monta Vista 5-1 on Jan. 6 but bouncing back with a 9-1 home on Jan. 9 win against Milpitas.

Afterwards, however, the team suffered setbacks with a 5-3 loss away at Los Altos on Jan. 13 and a 2-2 draw at home against Lynbrook on Jan. 20. These were games in which players thought they could easily have picked up playoff points

The team picked up crucial points away at Wilcox on Jan. 22, when they came out with a 4-3 win. The Falcons were up 3-0 when Wilcox came back to tie the game 3-3, only for junior Kevin Yu to score a vital fourth goal with minutes remaining.

However, the team has struggled with sickness and injury at many points in the season, and was without sophomore defender Eric Baer and sophomore winger Jack Isacke for its first few games.

Later, starting attacking midfielder senior Matthew van den Berg injured his leg during a game against Cupertino on Jan. 26 and was knocked out of play for the rest of the season.

The team closed out the first half of the season with a comprehensive 4-0 home win against Cupertino on Jan. 26. After the first half of the season, Yu led the league scoring list with 12 goals.

“Players such as [Yu] have helped the team a lot as they contribute by scoring crucial goals to win matches. He has been our top scorer for two years running and has truly helped us along the way to success,” Rao said.

Even though the team will unlikely be advancing to CCS playoffs, they have proven that the program is improving each year.

“Even though we didn’t make the playoffs, our team has strengthened each year under our new coaches and they’ve brought the program up to new heights,” senior midfielder Kanaai Shah said.

The team hosts Wilcox today and will travel for its final season game away at Cupertino High on Feb. 17. 

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