For the third time in 10 days, the Hart High School boys’ soccer team fell at the hands of the Loyola Cubs.
But this time, a loss for the Hawks meant the end of their season.
Hart fell on the road last week at Loyola High School, 1-0, in the CIF SoCal Regional Division 1 semifinals. All three wins for Loyola over Hart were by 1-0 scorelines.
The other two wins for Loyola came in the CIF Southern Section Open Division semifinals, when the Cubs won both legs of the two-legged affair for a 2-0 aggregate victory.
Hart head coach Alex Bernal said in a phone interview that this year’s team was special, proven by the fact that the Hawks ended the season as one of the top four teams in all of Southern California.
“I think that’s something that represents more of our season than the last losses,” Bernal said. “I think going into it, we knew, with everyone being healthy, we could really compete against anyone, and they proved that. We wouldn’t have gotten this far if we weren’t a special group of players.”
Last week’s loss saw the Cubs score early in the first half, and Bernal said it wasn’t until the Hawks were down that they began to grow into the game.
“The reaction is what we wanted,” Bernal said. “But, you know, unfortunately, we had to wait until they scored for us to kind of get back into our game again. At the end of the day, I’m proud of the boys.”
Loyola went on to the SoCal Regional final, which went the way of the JSerra Catholic Lions, 4-0. The Lions also defeated the Cubs in the section championship.
“They’re a well-organized team, good soccer players, and their work rate, too,” Bernal said of Loyola. “I mean, there’s times where teams have good players, but there’s no hunger, there’s no organization. But I think they had all three, which is very difficult to beat.”
Hart clinched its eighth straight league title this season with a perfect 12-0 record in Foothill League play, giving up just nine goals in those 12 games. In their six playoff games, the Hawks allowed just four goals total.
Bernal credited his defensive line of seniors Cameron Smith, Matthew Cole and Kevin Melquiades, along with sophomore Aiden Salvador and backed up in goal by senior Marco Gonzalez, for Hart’s defensive prowess.
“It just shows their hard work defensively as a unit,” Bernal said. “It starts from the guys up top, and obviously our two center backs this season have been — our back line in general, they’ve been tremendous. With Marco in goal, that’s another security blanket. There’s not many guys better than him.”
It’s the end of the road for a group of Hart seniors who never gave up the league title and lost just three games in four seasons. But as hard as those players worked, they also knew how to have fun, Bernal said.
“Honestly, the biggest thing is practices, the good memories we’ve shared,” Bernal said. “At times, they drive me crazy, but I’ll miss even them driving me crazy. The people they are, great people to have around.”
