| | Published November 27th, 2019
| After NCS Championship win, Cougars go on to win NorCal Championship
| | | By Jon Kingdon |  | | Photos Gint Federas |
Campolindo head coach Miles Price put together a schedule for his team that would have tested the heartiest of souls, competing against the top teams in Southern California, compiling an 8-8 record but losing only four more games (three to Miramonte) the rest of the season. "You want to take your punches during the regular season to prepare yourselves for the NCS and NorCal tournaments," said Price. "It was a hard schedule and I probably wouldn't do it again like that but it did prepare our guys. Each game was challenging and we learned a different lesson each time."
Soren Jensen, who will be playing for Stanford next year, attributed the success of the team to how well they played together: "The key to our success was teamwork. We lost five starters from last year but a lot of us have been together since the 12-and-unders and we worked really hard and wanted to win and we came together to win it."
"Our defense was excellent," said Price. West Temkin was our anchor in the goal and there were no leaks in the defense. There was great communication on our side of the pool.'
It was a combination of upper and lower classmen that led to the success of the team, according to Price: "Soren and Paul McGuire really came into their own and played to their potential. We got what we expected from our seniors and we had a lot of younger guys like juniors Brock Zamanian and Caleb Boggan who really anchored the middle of our lineup. All of our guys have stepped up the last four weeks and come together as a unit. We had to figure out who worked well together and once we got that, everyone seemed to play well around one another."
Jensen gives much of the credit to Price: "Miles has been great. He's helped me so much from when I was a freshman on the varsity and helped our team tremendously."
In only his second season at Acalanes, head coach Robbie Arroyo was able to take a team that was 8-9 last season, to the victory stand in the Division II NCS Championships with a victory over College Park by a score of 16-10. With the No. 1 seed, the Dons got a bye in the first round and then defeated Redwood (14-11) and Tamalpais (10-9) prior to the win over College Park.
Dripping wet after the compulsory leap into the pool with his team after the win, Arroyo attributed the victory to the process of a long season: "We played in a very tough league (Campolindo, Miramonte and Las Lomas) and played some great teams all year and it definitely prepared us for this moment. Mac Darren scored the majority of the goals in the championship game, but it was a team effort from top to bottom."
Though losing in the first round of the NorCal Division tournament to Clovis, Arroyo's great satisfaction was "bringing the team back to the tradition of winning. This is a great group of kids that wanted to be successful. They came in every day and worked hard. They were able to come together and do it when it mattered."
With a 6-0 record in a very competitive league with Acalanes, Campolindo and Las Lomas, it all came down to a matter of three goals that would prove to be the difference in two playoff games. The Matadors defeated Campolindo three times during the regular season but came up short in the NCS championship game against the Cougars by a score of 8-6. In the NorCal tournament, Miramonte lost to San Ramon Valley by a score of 17-16 in the semifinals, preventing a fifth matchup against Campolindo for the championship.
"Senior co-captain Jackson Painter led the way," said head coach James Lathrop, "and a lot of guys stepped up. Blake Hoover and William Thomas may have gone unnoticed but their main role was on defense and they did a great job anchoring that area."
Despite the tournament losses, Lathrop felt the overall work of his team was responsible for the overall success of the team: "It's been a really great senior group and they did a great job in leading the team. Everyone did a nice job in having fun but pushing and challenging each other to get better and working together with everyone willing to sacrifice when called upon. Everything really derived around the team concept." |
 | | Photos Gint Federas |  | | Photos Gint Federas |  | | Photos Gint Federas |  | | Photos Gint Federas |  | | story-photo-caption6 | | | |
Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA