LJ g soccer: Maz

 

 

By Ed Piper

Maz Devitt, senior captain:

"In the beginning of the year, we started working together really well as a team from the very first game. That's what put our season so far ahead from the get-go. And then from there, we've been working on our abilities to score and defend and work as a unit, and that's really helped us.

EP: When you beat Cathedral before (2-0 Jan. 16), that showed you could play well together.

MD: They didn't play well together, and we did. That's what really set us apart, because we could defend them. Their teammates weren't communicating and weren't playing well together. That's what made them fall apart. So they came back with more teamwork, and that's what proved as a challenge to us (in a 2-1 loss Feb. 1).

EP: But you can find a place for this, and keep making the progress you're making?

MD: We had a head start in this league, so even this little setback won't push us down too far.

EP: What do you concentrate on in your own position, your task apart from your captain duties?

MD: I work on making sure we have shape (a diamond formation among the four players in her part of the field), that my defender doesn't get past me, because that's where they're the most dangerous.

LJ g soccer: Sammie

Vikes' Sammie Smigliani is number 23.
(Photo by Ed Piper)
 

By Ed Piper

Sammie Smigliani, junior sweeper, on La Jolla's soccer team, defending CIF Division 1 champions, playing well this season:

I think that we have a lot of players who have stepped it up. Especially our forwards, (juniors) Chloe (Alexander) and Charli (Davy), took it to another level this year. And all of our seniors really stepped into a leadership role because we lost two or three good players who graduated. But I feel everyone came together and took it upon themselves. It has been cool to watch.

EP: What's your role? Talk about that.

SS: I'd say mainly making sure that everyone's organized, then, obviously, if things break down, getting it back and settling it down and getting up the field.

EP: You got the 2-1 decision (home loss to Cathedral) tonight (Thurs., Feb. 1). Then you have a couple of days. What do you do with that mentally?

SS: I think we need to just take the weekend to get past this, and then come Tuesday, we just want to take all of our anger out on them. We play Point Loma and Patrick Henry (actually, Point Loma and Bishop's).

Right now we're tied with Scripps. Hopefully, Cathedral beats Scripps and then we push ahead.

EP: Who is someone who has developed this year and come out of nowhere to be a surprise?

SS: Definitely, Sara Evans. She's a sophomore. She wasn't actually on varsity last year, but she plays the whole game and she has really impressed me this year. She's a center-mid(fielder).

LJ g soccer 1, Cathedral Catholic 2

By Ed Piper

What was a humdrum 2-0 game in favor of visiting Cathedral Catholic became a cliffhanger when La Jolla scored with just over five minutes remaining in regulation time and frantically tried to push in the equalizer, to no avail as Kristin "Jonesy" Jones' defending CIF champs fell 2-1 Thurs., Feb. 1.

Jones told her league-leading team after the game, "Keep your heads up" and "Don't get discouraged," over the narrow loss. The Vikings had defeated the Dons decisively 2-0 in their first match at Cathedral three weeks ago, and that win has contributed toward La Jolla sharing the league co-lead with Scripps Ranch with a week and a half to go in the regular season.

Cathedral held a 1-0 lead at halftime, then added a second goal midway through the second half. The game looked like it was headed to an inevitable conclusion.

But La Jolla, behind captains Maz Devitt and Grace Dessert and others, remained focused and was able to break into the scoring column, setting up five minutes of nervous time to close the game.

"We've come together really well, keeping our shape and working together," remarked Devitt about her team's strong play through league competition.

LJ b soccer: Photos 1/31 cropped

By Ed Piper

 

LJ b soccer: Salvatore

By Ed Piper

"A good team is all these nationalities together. That brings a good soccer team," remarks a smiling Salvatore Furlanis, father of La Jolla soccer team captain Marco Furlanis.

His wife, from Rio de Janeiro, hanging out nearby, chuckles as Marco catches his breath after the Vikings' 2-0 win at Lincoln to start the second half of the Eastern League schedule on the right foot.

The elder Furlanis, who hails from his native Italy, rattles off a list of cultures and nations represented on the Vikings team with an acquaintance: "We've got Spain (center attacker Pablo Jativa), Germany (brothers Nick and Luis Goehler), Italy, and Brazil," indicating himself and his wife with the last two.

"Ooh, Italy and Brazil: that's definitely a bridge of cultures," the acquaintance remarks.

Both mom and dad laugh. "It is," says Sal. "In the World Cup, we don't talk. This World Cup... I can't even talk (to my wife), because Italy isn't even in the World Cup."

"How about my country?" says the acquaintance. "Horrible. The United States. We didn't even make the World Cup."

The Vikings also have Latino and Anglo student athletes from the U.S. Both varsity coaches are Latino. 

How's your son's Portuguese? Mr. Furlanis is asked. "Pretty good." How's yours? "Good."

LJ b soccer: Photos 1/31

By Ed Piper

  

LJ b soccer 2, Lincoln 0

The Vikings' Miles Matalon, a senior
back, works toward midfield in the
second half of La Jolla's 2-0 win
at Lincoln. (Photo by Ed Piper)

By Ed Piper

The senior referee instituted a scorched-earth policy of no tolerance on players' language and complaints, and La Jolla's soccer team basically laid out an attack of taking no prisoners as Marcos Gonzales' squad blanked host Lincoln, 2-0, in a key second-round match in the Eastern League Wed., Jan. 31.

"It was a tough match, and we needed this to position ourselves for a place in the CIF playoffs," said captain Marco Furlanis afterward.

Striker Luis Goehler deposited the Vikings' first goal in the back of the net midway through the first half for a 1-0 lead. In the second half, Joe Wineman doubled the lead with a shot with 34 and a half minutes left in regulation. Those two goals stood up for the win.

Said senior right backfielder Miles Matalon, "Recently, we've been struggling, so we needed to win this to keep our hopes alive for the CIF playoffs. Everyone wants to be a part of that."

La Jolla is now 1-2-2 in league, just above cellar-dweller Lincoln at 1-3-1. The match-up was the first game of the second half the conference schedule. Hoover stands atop the Eastern League standings at 4-1, followed by Crawford at 1-1-3 and San Diego High at 1-1-2.

Among other issues, "We've had problems at goalie," said Viking assistant Victory Zendejas before the match. La Jolla reinserted Kevin Mojica, who was in goal earlier in the season, for the Lincoln game and he recorded a blank sheet, including two diving saves in the last five minutes.

"Ochoa! Ochoa!" his teammates called out from the visitors' bench on each of the saves, referring to Mexican star goalie Guillermo Ochoa.