UPDATE (Feb. 28, 9 a.m.): King City beat Torres 5-1 on Tuesday. The Mustangs will next play Justin Garza High School of Fresno on Thursday, Feb. 29, at 5 p.m. at home in the NorCal Division IV playoffs.
Original story below.
KING CITY — Playing against a familiar foe in the Central Coast Section Championship game could have been a tough task for anyone, but the battle-tested King City Mustang boys’ soccer team proved to be up to the challenge.
King City had four different players score in the team’s 5-2 title-clinching game with the Monterey High Toreadores last Saturday at Christopher High School.
The Toreadores had placed second in the Mission Division behind the division-champion Mustangs and had lost to King City in their first game, but the two teams played to a 1-1 tie in the second game in Monterey.
“When we played Monterey, we had the advantage because they had at least five injuries to starting players,” said King City head coach Jaime Cortes. “We won that game 5-2. In the second round of league, Monterey made a comeback and recovered all their players. They have two key players in Sekou Matthews and Ethan Bonilla and they are dangerous players, and when given a chance they capitalize. Monterey moves the ball fairly well and we knew they were going to be a strong team. I expected a tough game, we tied 1-1 in the second round.”
King City’s Victor Medina scored the first goal for King City and the Mustangs scored another goal to take a 2-1 advantage going into the half.
In the end, the Mustangs had a lot of firepower on Saturday, as two goals by Israel Saldana and solo goals by Damian Aguirre and Esteban Acosta were too much for the Toreadores to overcome.
“I don’t think we took control of the game until the final minutes,” Cortez said. “We just took advantage of the counter attacks.”
Two days before the CCS finals, the Mustangs defeated the North Salinas Vikings in penalties by a 3-2 score, with Gerardo Quintana scoring the decisive goal.
“Both teams had opportunities to score during regulation, but no one was able to capitalize,” Cortez said. “We had some really good shots, but it was not our night. During the game, the thought of losing didn’t cross my mind, but I knew that it was a 50/50 chance in PKs (penalty kicks). We had practiced PKs the day before and my goalie looked really good. Therefore, I felt confident about him. However, some of my players were shooting horribly and that was my concern.”
The Mustang shooters during the penalty kicks were Israel Saldana, Deon Rodriguez, Esteban Acosta, Victor Medina and Gerardo Quintana. Mustang goalie Jesus Montoya was credited with two saves in the PKs round to seal the victory.
The Mustangs began play Tuesday night at home against Torres High School in the Regional Semifinals of the Northern California Tournament. King City was seeded second in the tournament, while Torres of Madera was seeded seventh.
