After an immediate opening goal against Rancho Bernardo, boys soccer failed to keep the lead and struggled to recover from a second-half momentum shift, resulting in a 3-1 loss, Jan. 16.
Winger Aiden Peterson (12) gave Westview an early advantage by scoring in the first minute of the game. After that, however, he said the team struggled on offense.
“We couldn’t get much off of the attack,” he said. “We had a lot of chances, but we didn’t score any of them. So then we gave the other team a chance to stay in the game, and they ended up taking advantage of it.”
Winger Jamie Baik (11) said he had a similar assessment, noting Rancho Bernardo’s tight defensive approach on a small playing field.
“We were in their half a lot, but their defense did well controlling us out of the box,” Baik said. “The field is a lot smaller too. It’s around 20 yards smaller than a field like ours. There’s more tight spaces, and a big weakness of our team is definitely that we’re shorter, so we can’t head the ball as much. So if a ball comes in the air, there’s a big chance we don’t win it, [and] the ball goes a lot farther on a shorter field.”
After tying the match 1-1, in the second half, Rancho Bernardo pulled ahead with two goals within five minutes.
“After the two goals we tried to keep fighting, but obviously team morale was a bit down, so it was hard for us to refocus on trying to get back a lead,” Peterson said. “So that impacted us for the rest of the game negatively. I think after they scored that first goal, we didn’t try hard enough to stay focused, and that led to the other team gaining more momentum for them, and that caused them to score more goals after that. It’s a skill we’ve been working on because it happened to us in a recent Mission Hills game too. When they scored their first goal, even though we were never down, we were acting like we were.”
Despite the loss, Peterson said the team showed defensive strength.
“Even though they scored three goals, we kept working defensively and we weren’t giving up dumb chances,” Peterson said. “We did [well] connecting up the field and giving the attackers chances to score, even if they didn’t score them. The first half we did pretty well, [there was] a lot of breaking out, our runs were decent, it was pretty good.”
Westview will face San Pasqual today at home.
“San Pasqual is a really good team,” Peterson said. “They’ve always been good every year and a big opponent. They have a lot of team chemistry, and they definitely play in a higher level competition than us, so they’re more used to playing in bigger games. We definitely need to try to get a win out hopefully because they’re having a rough start to the season too, so that’s what we’re looking for.”
Peterson added that momentum from earlier matches in the week leading up to today’s game could shape the outcome. Game results of Wednesday’s game against Poway were not available at press time.
“If we beat Poway, and we go in with some momentum, I think we have a chance at doing well,” he said. “We faced Poway already, and we beat them 2-0, so going into this game, I think we’re going to beat them again. We have a good team, a bunch of players with good skills, and if we learn to start playing with each other, we could probably start winning more games.”
Both Peterson and Baik emphasized that success against San Pasqual will depend less on talent and more on group mentality and teamwork.
“We have a lot of people who are trying to chase individual success, and that’s hurting the team,” Peterson said. “We need to trust in our teammates more. We’re going to recollect, we need our team captain to keep us motivated and strong, and that’ll help us be able to find ourselves together.
Baik shared a similar perspective, adding that the team is striving to be more connected.
“If we work together as a team and stay motivated, I think we could be able to get better outcomes,” Baik said. “Because that’s what soccer is, a team sport. A lot of us are independent right now. We’re not working together, communicating, the chemistry isn’t there. Since we’re not together as a team, that’s why we’ve been losing and not getting the outcomes we need. So I think we need to recollect and keep our heads up.”
As the San Pasqual game approaches, Peterson said the biggest challenge is maintaining mental fortitude.
“It’s gonna be a matter of if we’re going into the game with the right mentality,” Peterson said. “I know some people have been saying that we are going to lose this game, but if they go into this game already thinking we’re gonna lose, then we already have. Whenever we get scored on, we need to move past it and stay focused.”
