Seemingly nothing went the way of the Golden Valley boys’ soccer team in Saturday’s home playoff game.
The visiting Los Amigos Lobos started off with a couple of shots on goal before getting the first goal of the game 14 minutes in via a Golden Valley own goal. From there, the Lobos were a threat on the counter and took a 3-0 lead into the half.
When the final whistle blew, the Golden Valley Grizzlies’ season was finished as the Lobos walked away from Golden Valley High School with a 5-1 victory to advance to the CIF Southern Section Division 5 quarterfinals.
“Starting with the own goal is just super hard,” said Golden Valley head coach Stephen Evison. “Giving up one before half, everyone comes in kind of just deflated. So yeah, it’s not the result we wanted.”
Grizzlies senior Anthony Padilla scored the lone goal for Golden Valley with 18 minutes to play, but it was too little, too late with the Grizzlies already trailing by five.
They continued to fight, though, and a couple more shots near the end came close to making it a tighter game.
“They never quit. They didn’t roll over,” Evison said. “I mean, maybe towards the end there, they were a little gassed, but for the most part, we stuck in there.”
The Grizzlies were trying to get back to the quarterfinals after making it there in 2023.
This playoff run marked the third straight year that Golden Valley has advanced past the regular season. Now, Evison wants his returning players to set a goal of not just making the playoffs, but producing in those games.
“The fact that this is our third year in a row making playoffs is still something to kind of go out on, and it’s still a standard that needs to be met every single year,” Evison said. “Now, we just need to maybe make goals for before the season, that not only are we going to make playoffs, but we’re going to produce in the playoffs, and we’re going to get more than the two, three wins that we have.”
Part of that, Evison thinks, is getting back to making home turf a place where the Grizzlies dominate. They went 2-9 at Golden Valley this year.
“It’s kind of getting back to what works and what do we used to do that made us unstoppable up here, and trying to get back to that,” Evison said.
Evison will see multiple players graduate who have been part of the playoff teams. He pointed out seniors Wil Flint, Padilla and Brandon Arrieta as key cogs that will have to be replaced for the Grizzlies to maintain that standard of making the playoffs.
“We’re really starting to lose some of the key players that made Golden Valley, Golden Valley,” Evison said. “But within this system, I believe that we have a very, very strong upcoming. The freshman class this year, more than any other class made JV and varsity levels. So, I’m fairly confident, but I think it’s just about getting back to the basics and getting back to a really hard-nose grind and getting back to finding who we are, because I think maybe we lost it a little bit.”
In the other playoff soccer second-round game on Saturday featuring a Santa Clarita Valley team, the Saugus Centurions fell on the road at Anaheim, 4-3.
Saugus led 1-0 at the half and then increased its lead to 2-0 in the second half. Anaheim then stormed back to knot things up at 2-2. The Centurions scored again to take the lead, only for Anaheim to tie the game on a penalty kick and then win the game on a corner kick.
Santiago Veizaga, Colby McKelvey and Lincoln Fritz scored for Saugus.
