Gunn, M-A boys booted from CCS soccer Gunn, M-A boys booted from CCS soccer (February 27, 2004)

by Keith Peters

A considerable rebuilding effort will be under way at Menlo-Atherton and Gunn next season, as the boys' soccer teams patch things up in hopes of taking another step forward.

Both squads reached the Central Coast Section Division I semifinals on Tuesday at PAL Stadium in San Jose, and both suffered lopsided losses.

Second-seeded Gunn (15-4-5) dropped a 4-1 decision to No. 3 Gilroy (21-0-5) while No. 4 Menlo-Atherton (13-4-6) was eliminated following a 3-1 loss to No. 1 Watsonville (24-1-1).

For the Titans, they'll lose 10 players off a team that had hoped to win a second straight Division I championship. For the Bears, 16 players on their 25-man roster will depart - including offensive star Javier Hil.

Gunn will return 10 players, eight of whom had considerable experience as starters. A plus for the Titans is their JV team was unbeaten this season. Menlo-Atherton, meanwhile, returns only six players, two of whom started, but isn't as blessed by a successful JV team as Gunn is.

Still, that's a lot of lost experience by teams hoping to take the next step forward, which would be to reach next year's championship match. Their best shots, of course, came Tuesday night against two very good, talented opponents.

Hil said he and his teammates played Watsonville fairly even during the first 15-20 minutes, "but, over 80 minutes, Watsonville was the better team."

Menlo-Atherton coach Juan Camahort agreed.

"Watsonville is just too good," he said. "There's no weaknesses on that team."

Still, the Bears trailed by only 1-0 at the half following a goal by the Wildcatz in the 37th minute. Menlo-Atherton would have been leading at that point, had senior Alex Ruck's shot that hit the crossbar been a bit lower. However, it bounced straight down to Hil, whose shot was saved by keeper Israel Cisneros.

M-A failed to capitalize on another opportunity when Hil's shot was blocked and bounced to senior Robert Kent, who missed an open shot from 12 yards out.

Watsonville, meanwhile, made the most of its chances - despite some fine goalie work by senior Anthony Nikolchev and senior sweeper Darren Borcherdt.

Hil gave M-A's its only goal in stoppage time. Moments later, the Bears' season was over.

Departing along with Hil, Ruck, Kent, Borchert and Nikolchev will be fellow seniors Xeronimo Castaneda, Ricardo Correa, Chris Hodgin, Edgar Lara, Ramon Madriz, Matthew Mason, Rex Pechler, Armando Valencia, Guillermo Ortiz, Eliseo Arteaga and Jonathan Rodriguez.

Gunn's hopes for a title defense ended quickly after the Titans took the field following M-A's loss. Gilroy jumped out quickly to a 3-0 first-half lead, scoring on three of its first four shots in the first 30 minutes to remove any doubt to the game's outcome. While Gunn did recover from a 3-0 deficit during the SCVAL De Anza Division season, the caliber of talent at the CCS level pretty much excludes such a comeback.

The Titans had only one shot on goal in the first half and missed some opportunities in the second half, before Matt Marquess connected off a cross from fellow senior Pablo Rivera. Earlier, junior Alex Guzinski headed a shot off the crossbar and junior Ryan McDermott had a point-blank shot saved by Gilroy's goalie and just missed wide on another attempt.

Along with Marquess and Rivera, Gunn loses seniors Colin Van Hare, Mark Johnston, Nick Marsh, Eadon Jacobs, Nitzan Zorman, Bobby Bateman, Allon Jacobs and Oleg Volfovskiy.

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