“Everyone has a special place in their heart for Salcedo,” Mountain View midfielder Fabian Villasenor said. “We all wanted to do this for him.”

Mountain View championship photo gallery

By Fred J. Robledo
This one was for Bobby.
Before the Mountain View High School boys soccer team accepted its championship plaque after knocking off top-seed Hesperia Oak Hills 2-1 to capture its second straight CIF-Southern Section Division 6 title on Saturday at Warren High School in Downey, the Vikings took a moment to gather themselves. They huddled, raised their hands, looked at the sky and shouted Bobby Salcedo’s name, the former vice principal of the school who was murdered during the Christmas Holidays while vacationing with his wife in Mexico.

Salcedo, who also was an El Monte City School Board member, was a casualty of Mexico’s ongoing drug war, Mexican authorities believe. He was kidnapped from a restaurant and murdered along with five others in the small town of Gomez Palacio.
He also happened to be one of the Vikings’ biggest fans and supporters, coach Frank Corona explained.
“We worked so hard after Mr. Salcedo’s passing and dedicated the season to him,” Corona said. “Last year he was our No. 1 fan. We had a fundraiser to raise money for our (championship) rings, and he did most of the fundraising for us.”
After advancing in the playoffs twice with sudden death-overtime victories and surviving a penalty shootout in the semifinals, the Vikings didn’t want to stumble with one hurdle left to clear.
This time the second-seed Vikings (16-4-4) didn’t need any last minute heroics to beat Oak Hills (21-5-4), giving the Vikings their third section title since 2005.
Two second-half goals, one an own goal and the second by Pablo Tellez in the 57th minute, gave the Vikings enough insurance to pull it out despite not having reigning Tribune player of the year Diego Rodriguez, who was limited to just a few second-half minutes because of an injured left knee he suffered in the semifinals.
But it didn’t matter, central defenders Julian Amado and Jose Valdez did a wonderful job bottling up Bulldogs forward Juan Nuno, who entered the game with 39 goals and 13 assists, but left frustrated.
Vikings senior midfielder Fabian Villasenor won fifty-fifty balls all over the place and had an influence on both Vikings’ goals.
Villasenor’s long throw into the penalty area was back-headed toward the goal by Jesus Mariscal, deflecting off the shoulder of Oak Hills defender Brett Croft straight into the near corner for an own goal in the 47th minute to give the Vikings a 1-0 lead.
The Vikings doubled their lead after peppering Bulldogs goalkeeper Broderic Capps, which started on Villansenor’s corner kick and Manuel Garcia’s quick shot that was initially turned away by Capps.
Carlos Zarate followed with a point blank shot that Capps poked away again, but Tellez was able to follow it up, rifling home a right-footed shot in the 57th minute to stake the Vikings to a 2-0 lead.
The Vikings had to sweat it out the final minutes after Oak Hills midfielder Miguel Rivera scored on a broken play in the 69th minute, but they bunkered up and got it done.
“Last year we were the number one team all season and it was kind of expected (a championship),” Villasenor said. “This year we came in as underdogs and we knew they were the top seed (Oak Hills) and were going to fight us, but we overcame adversity all during the playoffs and weren’t going to come up short after coming this far.”
After the Vikings’ slow 4-4-1 start in December, they refocused after dedicating the season to Salcedo.
“Everyone has a special place in their heart for Salcedo,” Villasenor said. “We all wanted to do this for him.”
The Vikings hope to begin pursuit of their first Southern California Regional title next week. The pairings are announced today with first-round games on Tuesday.
“One of our biggest motto’s is work,” assistant coach Javier Aguiniga said. “There are teams that come from better communities than ours with better resources, but money can’t buy hard work, it can’t buy heart and passion, and now we want to win the (Southern California championship) and put El Monte on the map.
“I know we’re (El Monte) known for a lot of other stuff, but we’re proud to represent our city and do everyone proud.”
fred.robledo@sgvn.com
626-962-8811, ext. 2161