By Fred J. Robledo
Mountain View, winners of back-to-back CIF-Southern Section Division 6 boys soccer titles, accomplished something during a December non-league game that Baldwin Park couldn’t do in two tries. The Vikings defeated back-to-back Division 5 champ Salesian 1-0, the school that knocked Baldwin Park out of the playoffs each of the past two years, which included a championship loss in 2009 and semifinal loss in 2010. (To continue, click thread).
Salesian is all that probably stood in the way of back-to-back titles for the Braves, who entered Wednesday’s non-league showdown at home against Mountain with an undefeated 7-0-2 record, giving the Braves an overall mark of 54-3-5 since the 2008-09 season.
But the Vikings are the type that take on all comers, which was evident in their recent trip against host Santa Barbara in a showcase game that they came away with a 0-0 tie.
Even though the the Vikings benched several starters and nearly gave up a goal in the opening minutes against Baldwin Park on Wednesday, they defended well enough and came away with the game’s only goal in the 38th minute when defender Jesus Valdez headed home a cross from Alan Miranda for a 1-0 victory to improve to 4-2-2.
Afterward, Vikings co-head coach Javier Aguiniga brought everyone together and delivered the type of speech you might see in a championship game.
“We had a bad week, a lot of guys missed practice,” Aguiniga said. “You win a couple championships and it gets into your head. It’s sort of like the Lakers, you just become complacent.
“But I told these guys, this might be the deepest team we’ve ever had. If you don’t come to play with the right attitude, we’ve got guys on the bench just as good. For a coach, that’s a great problem to have.”
Not only have the Vikings taken on Santa Barbara and Salesian, their two losses came against traditional soccer powers La Canada and Animo Leadership, and they have another tie against Chaminade.
It’s a brutal schedule that also incudes another divisional champion on Friday when they head to Paramount.
All this before starting the Mission Valley League next week.
“I don’t want to say anything negative about our league, but we wanted to play the best teams we could to prepare us for a CIF,” Aguiniga said. “I honestly believe this team can be better than the previous two. We have the talent, most of it’s mental. When our guys are focused and locked in, I feel like we can beat anyone.”
Baldwin Park’s best chance came in the second minute when Armando Pineda broke free in the penalty area, but his shot sailed across the goal mouth.
“We outplayed them, but they defended well,” Pineda said. “We took more shots, but they capitalized on our mistake and that was it. Good teams will do that to you.”
