Boys’ varsity soccer scored 6 goals to beat Alhambra High School in their first home game on December 12.  The Cougar defense held the Bulldogs scoreless.

In spite of losing key veterans from last year’s squad, head coach Shane Carney believes his younger players are filling the void. “We lost twenty boys last season so its a lot of new boys coming out and stepping up,” he said.

According to Carney, the adjustment is a challenge. “[It’s hard] getting everyone to start playing together, getting used to each other because there is so many new pieces,” he said.

Senior captain and striker Sean Qualls thinks the team is coming together well. “I mean we have a bunch of great guys on our team and everyone gets along really well and we have a lot of chemistry so it’s really fun to go out there and play,” he said. 

Reflecting on the Alhambra game, Carney still sees areas for improvement however. “We need to just play better position. We turn the ball over way too often. Tonight it was okay but with better teams we’ll struggle. We just have to play quick. We’re really small compared to the other teams we play, so it’s important that we play really fast,” he said.

Qualls believes that improving the basic fundamentals of the game is essential. “Move, passing the ball and all on making connections with the passes,” he said.

Left midfielder Seppi Ortman said,”[There’s] a lot of stuff. It’s the beginning of the year and we have a lot to improve on overall game.”

“We did much better in the second half than we did in the first half, we scored four goals but it was an ugly game. In the second half we played much better and created much better quality chances,” said Carney.

Ortman believes that teamwork was a factor in the win. “This team [Alhambra] was not very good, but teamwork, putting in a lot of practice because of pre-season- that really helped,” he said.

“I guess passing the ball more and giving our teammates more of a chance to score goals,” said Qualls of the areas the team needs to improve. “Keeping our formation really wide and passing the ball a lot and getting a lot of chances on goal.”

“[This] week we have home games against Los Lamos and Miramonte so we’re looking forward to those,” added Carney.

According to Qualls, certain teams will be challenging for the Cougars. “[One challenging team is] Livermore but I think we can definitely hand it to them next time. ‘Cause they used to have a couple of really good players on their team but they’re not really amazing as a whole and we kind of have that whole chemistry as a whole and we get along really well so I feel like we can play better than them,” he said.

With the win, the Cougars are 3-2 overall, and 1-1 in league.