The Torrey Pines boys soccer teams were winners off the field recently, holding a food drive to support Feeding San Diego before the winter break. All levels of the boys soccer program participated, donating 371 lbs of food.
The Falcons beat the Ravens 2-0 on goals by seniors Kian El-Ansary and Andre Philibbosian.
League play for both squads will begin in January. The Falcons are coming into the season as the defending North County Coastal League champions and CIF State Regional champs.
The Torrey Pines boys soccer team are the 2022 CIF State Regional Division II champions after a 2-0 win over Redondo Union in the wind and rain on March 5.
Torrey Pines won on goals scored by senior Andrew Mitchell.
The Falcons wrap the season up with five trophies: CIF State Regional Champions, third place in CIF San Diego Open Division, North County Coastal League Champions, North County Elite HS Tournament Champions and SoCal HS Classic Champions.
REDONDO BEACH >> The aim all along for the Redondo boys soccer team was to capture the school’s first CIF Southern Section championship in the sport, an achievement reached a week earlier, so if Saturday night’s defeat in the Southern California Regional title game stung, it hardly defined the Sea Hawks’ greatest campaign.
San Diego powerhouse Torrey Pines dictated every phase of play en route to a 2-0 road triumph, its second title in four regional appearances the past five seasons and in eight tournaments since the competition debuted in 2008.
Andrew Mitchell fired the Falcons (24-2-3) ahead after a ball bounded to him on the left eight minutes into the second half, and Elijah Zelkind’s free kick from the left flank 20 yards out sneaked through a crowd in the box and inside the right post nine minutes later, and their swarming defense did the rest in a comprehensive victory.
“Outstanding team. Easily the best team we’ve faced this year,” Redondo coach Mark Hodson said. “They have real high-quality players, but they also work super hard, and they didn’t let us breathe at all. They did a really good job of containing us, and then when they attack, they attack with numbers and quality. …
“They were the better team tonight and thoroughly deserved to win.”
The Sea Hawks (15-6-4) managed just three decent chances, and only one of them, a Tyler Busse header from Ryan Doyle’s cross four minutes into the second half, resulted in a shot. Torrey Pines, which lost on penalties to champion Coronado in the San Diego Section Open Division semifinals as the No. 1 seed, permitted few forays into its defensive third, using its pace and tenacity in the middle of the field to quickly recover balls after Redondo gained possession.
Grant Berman’s ball over the top for Daniel Vorndron in the 33rd minute was pushed by the wind into Falcons goalkeeper Elijah Mineiro’s arms and Vorndron’s feed through the box from the right in the 68th was just beyond Beau Yantz’s reach. That was pretty much it for Redondo.
“Credit to the players,” Torrey Pines assistant coach Joel Kosakoff, running the team in coach Andrew Hargreaves’ absence. “Total team effort and not letting the other team have any time on the ball and just trying to suffocate them, which takes a lot of energy and effort mentally and physically. These guys really deserved it.”
The Falcons were without two starters, Tye Barton and Charlie Kosakoff, Joel’s son, who left the team for trials with the San Diego Loyal, a pro team that Landon Donovan coaches in the second-tier United Soccer League.
The defeat takes no luster from Redondo’s run to capture the Southern Section Division 2 title.
“We set out with the goal to win CIF at the start of the season and I wouldn’t say we played our best today, but we worked really hard,” midfielder Jaden Hancock said. “Obviously, hate to lose, but we had a helluva season. (Regionals are the) cherry on top, but the cake would have tasted so much sweeter if we had the cherry. We won CIF, and that was the main thing, I guess. But we would have loved to win regionals, too.”
Sectional titles have generally meant more to soccer teams than regional crowns.
“(Winning CIF) was a wonderful fairy tale,” Hodson said. “The regionals were a great add-on to keep the group together, give our seniors extra games, and don’t get me wrong, we would have loved to win tonight. But we’re happy for a really wonderful season and lots of lifelong memories for these kids.
“They’ll forever be in the history books as the first male team to win (CIF) here at Redondo, so we can’t ask for more than that.”
Given the historic stature of the two programs, Tuesday night’s CIF Boys Open Division Quarterfinal between Cathedral Catholic and Torrey Pines seemed more suited to a semi-final or championship match-up. After all, between the pair, they’ve accounted for five (CC-3, TP-2) of the previous eight Open Division titles and only once have both not been in the prestigious eight-team bracket.
But unlike most contests between these two schools, this one had a clear-cut favorite. Host Torrey Pines came in wielding an 18-2-2 record, the North Coastal League crown and the No. 1 seed while Cathedral Catholic was an uncharacteristic 6-4-6 on the year, managed just third in the tough Western League and slipped in as the eighth seed.
Unfortunately for the defending champion Dons, the game reflected those numbers. The host Falcons were dominant in the first half—methodically efficient offensively, pressuring relentlessly on defense—got the lead early and were never seriously threatened, coming away with an impressive, 5-1 victory. They will now host fourth-seeded Coronado, a surprisingly easy, 5-0, winner over No. 5 San Dieguito Academy, in next Tuesday night’s semi-final, also at Torrey Pines. Veteran Torrey Head Coach Andy Hargreaves was understandably pleased with his side’s performance.
“I thought overall we were very solid defensively as a team and didn’t give anything away,” said Hargreaves. “We were clinical when we finished and the midfield held through the whole game.
“There were really no negatives.”
Cathedral Catholic Head Coach Nate Hetherington could find little to fault about his adversaries either. “They have a lot of experience and with that, a lot of game intelligence,” noted Hetherington. “They’re movement off the ball was ultimately the difference.
“We’ve got a good team but they were very hard to track and very hard to eliminate in the 1v1 duels.”
The Falcons got the jump on Cathedral from the opening whistle, keeping the Dons’ senior goalkeeper Brady Bachman under siege much of the night. After creating several dangerous chances early, Hargreaves’ charges broke through in the 10th minute. After a cross by senior Charlie Kosakoff rocketed perilously across the goal mouth, it was collected on the far wing by another senior, Eli Zelkind, who lofted it back into the box where a third senior, midfielder Mateo Pacelli deftly headed it past Bachman.
Just over five minutes later, senior center back Dylan Gleason inserted himself into the attack and put a right-footed volley past Bachman. It looked like this one might get out of reach early.
“We’d been pressuring the goal and with the ball in the air I saw one of their defenders moving to head it out,” said Gleason, who had just recently moved from midfield to the back line after Falcon star Tye Barton signed with the San Diego Loyal. “I tried to line up with where I thought he would hit it and luckily it came right to me—I played it down off my chest and made good contact.
“I was super-hyped. It was an important goal, putting us up by two and building on the momentum we’d already created.”
Torrey Pines continued to control the run of play but with just over five minutes to go before the break, Cathedral appeared to get itself back into the game. A long, crossing free kick by senior Robert Ronco was headed into the net by a Connor Douglas and the deficit was cut in half. The score remained 2-1 at halftime but any Don hopes of a second half comeback were quickly dashed.
Four minutes and 30 seconds in, Zelkind was pulled down inside the box and Kosakoff slotted a penalty kick into the lower right corner to restore the Falcons’ two goal advantage. Five minutes later, Zelkind lofted a cross into the box from deep on the right wing. After a scrum in front of the goal, the ball bounced free to TP midfielder Mikey Sherlock and he deposited it from short range. With 15:20 to go, a slick pass from Pacelli put Andrew Mitchell in and the senior fired low to the far side for the game’s final score.
“Nate (Hetherington) is a great coach and Cathedral plays a good style,” said Hargreaves. “If you don’t have good midfielders, they can take over a game. Our midfielders, Pacelli, Dre (Andre Philibbosian), Mikey (Sherlock) and Juan (Serrano) are all super good which is a big reason we were so successful tonight.”
As a sophomore, former midfielder Gleason was pulled up from the TP junior varsity for the 2020 post-season but didn’t play during the team’s section title run. Last year, as a regular, the Falcons made a first round CIF exit, beaten, 2-1, by St. Augustine. That experience was on his mind Tuesday.
“The first game in the playoffs is really tough and having been put out in the first round last year, that’s been a little weight we’ve been carrying on our backs,” said Gleason postgame. “We wanted to get rid of that.
“It feels great, especially playing as well as we did. It was like the first ‘real’ CIF win for me.”
Hargreaves says his squad will be ready for Coronado (16-0-2), which has a season goal differential of +61 and is the only undefeated team in the field.
“It’s going to be a tough game,” said Hargreaves. “But, if we play our game the way we can, we can beat anybody. We’ve just got to make sure our mindset is right.”
What looked like a walk in the park early turned into a nailbiter late as No. 1-ranked Torrey Pines (CIF D-1 power rankings) survived a comeback effort by visiting San Dieguito Academy (SDA) to post a 3-2 North Coastal League boys’ soccer victory Thursday night, Feb. 3.
The win over the No. 5 Mustangs improved Torrey Pines’ season record to 15-2-2 and their league ledger to 5-2-1. SDA dropped to 13-5-5/4-2-2. The result, coupled with Carlsbad’s 1-1 tie at Sage Creek, left the Falcons deadlocked with Carlsbad atop the NCL standings with 11 points. SDA is third with 10 points followed by CCA another point back.
Torrey Pines applied pressure from the outset. A quick, well-organized possession game had SDA reeling in its own end and uber-aggressive defensive tactics to kept the Mustang offense bottled up. San Dieguito Head Coach Michael Elenz-Martin said as much afterward.
“We didn’t show up in the first half and weren’t prepared for this type of environment,” said Elenz-Martin, likely alluding to both his team’s opponents and their vocal fans. “You have to give credit to Torrey Pines—their midfield was very dynamic, they were finding combinations and getting us out of position quite a bit.”
After about 10 minutes of solid play, mostly in the middle of the field, the Falcons turned up the heat and were buzzing in and out of the box in front of the SDA goal, generating a flurry of great chances but thanks in large part to some excellent play by goalkeeper Lucas Beltran, no immediate reward,.
With 28:20 to go in the half, a pair of seniors combined to get Torrey on the scoreboard. Wyatt Gardner fed Mateo Pacelli with an inside pass 20 yards in front of the left goal post. The clever Pacelli eluded two defenders and drilled a left-footed strike past Beltran’s right shoulder for the tally.
“It was a nice pass, I kind of anticipated the situation and saw this little gap between two defenders,” said Pacelli. “I shifted in between them, got my eye on the goal and put it away to the near post.”
The Falcons maintained their unrelenting approach and 10 minutes later, after a ping-pong scramble in front of the SDA net, the ball came loose to an unmarked Eli Zelkind left of the goal and the TP senior hit a low shot to the far side making it 2-0.
Although the hosts continued to threaten, that’s how the first half ended with SDA unable to muster a single shot on goal. Veteran TP assistant coach Joel Kosakoff, taking the reins from Head Coach Andy Hargreaves (home on doctor’s orders) for the night, was happy with his squad’s performance in the first 40 minutes but also a tad frustrated.
“I think the boys came out with great energy and gave SDA no space, no room and just suffocated them,” said Kosakoff. “I thought it was a total team effort, didn’t see a guy who wasn’t firing on all cylinders energy-wise.
“But we were up two goals and it probably should have been four or five. When you have opportunities in this game, you’ve got to take advantage of them.”
The second half proved that to be true. Elenz-Martin made some adjustments, allocating more numbers on the defensive side of the ball, and his crew clearly came out with more purpose and drive after the break. It took SDA less than two minutes to put its first ball on goal but Torrey Pines still appeared firmly in control with just over 20 minutes remaining.
That’s when things got interesting. In the blink of an eye, the momentum swung. Mustang senior Scott Solano got free and ripped a shot that deflected into the goal off a Torrey defender and suddenly a one-sided affair was a contest.
“We never had an inkling that they would score in the first half and talked about bringing the same energy back in the second half but might have dropped off a little bit,” said Pacelli. “On their first goal, we got kind of discombobulated at midfield, left too large a gap between our defensive guys, their guy got a step and made the most of it.”
The scenario became more stressful for Torrey Pines with 15 minutes to go. Zelkind and SDA sophomore Garrett Delorme got tangled up and went down on the sidelines. In the aftermath, Delorme left the field on a cart with a bad ankle injury and Zelkind received a questionable red card meaning his team would have to play the remainder of the game with just 10 players.
As time wound down, the Falcons thought they put it away, benefiting from another senior collaboration, this time speedy Charlie Kosakoff (Jake’s son) getting on the end of an over-the-top Mikey Sherlock pass. Two defenders on his back, Kosakoff angled left to create space, measured his target and beat Beltran to the far side of the net, restoring the lead to two goals.
The persistent Mustangs refused to go away, however, and just minutes later scored on a picture perfect cross from senior Cody Van Dyck to Jake Kluka. The junior soared over his Torrey defender and headed the ball past keeper Elijah Mineiro, cutting the margin back to one. The final whistle blew shortly thereafter, allowing the TP sideline to breath easier and bank a lesson for the future.
“They’re a good team,” said Kosakoff of SDA afterward. “You let them hang around and stuff like that can happen in soccer. They came out and played well in the second half.
“If we play like we did in the first half, we are capable of winning CIF and maybe even State. But to win consistently against the best teams, we have to be able to sustain that for 80 minutes.”
Elenz-Martin, who’s bidding to have his club be the first SDA boys’ team reach a CIF Open Division bracket, had a post-game perspective not vastly dissimilar from that of Kosakoff. “It was a hard-fought game between two really good teams,” he said. “If we could have strung two good halves together, the result might have different.
“You have to be able to combine two halves in order to be the best in this league—tonight we didn’t do that. In the second half, we showed grit, character and made a game of it. I’m proud of that and we’ll build on it. We’ll definitely be ready for Carlsbad Tuesday.”
In the final week of league play, Torrey Pines will face Canyon Crest Tuesday, Feb. 8, and Oceanside Thursday, Feb. 10, while SDA will battle Carlsbad and Sage Creek. CIF berths will be announced Saturday, Feb. 12. The top eight teams will earn spots in the Open Division tournament.
By KEN GROSSE
MAR. 1, 2020 4:49 PM
No penalty kicks were needed in Friday night’s CIF Boys Soccer Open Division Championship game at Mission Bay High School. After staring over the edge in an overtime (PKs) cliffhanger of a victory against Canyon Crest in Tuesday night’s semi-final, Torrey Pines came out blazing, scoring two goals in the first six minutes on its way to a commanding, 4-1, triumph over fourth-seeded Del Norte. The win gave the Falcons their second consecutive Open Division title.
