Hillsdale clinches Bay title

The Knights are doing what few teams in any sport in PAL history have ever done in winning the Ocean one year and the Bay the next. On Wednesday, Hillsdale clinched the outright Bay Division championship with an impressive 3-1 win over visiting Sequoia. The Knights (9-0-2 PAL Bay, 13-0-2) are sitting atop the PAL, a place few would have ever imagined. Two years ago, Hillsdale was an underachieving group long on potential but short on discipline. Now the Knights are one of the most talented, well-coached and disciplined teams in all of the Central Coast Section.

They took apart a highly-skilled Sequoia (5-1-5, 7-2-5) team with pinpoint passing and aggressive runs. Neither team did much in the first half; they negated each for the most part and took turns with possession. Both squads are similar in that they use multiple short passes -- and not the long ball -- to generate scoring chances. With five to six major talents on each team, Sequoia-Hillsdale has often become a battle of attrition. Yet the Knights are 2-0-1 against the Cherokees in the last year, including a victory in the CCS playoffs last February.

Hillsdale went up 1-0 in the 50th minute when Jose Mejia drilled a free kick from 15 yards outside the top of the box. Mejia's leg strength is ridiculous; he's scored from as far away as 40 yards before, and against Sequoia he blasted a shot over the wall and just inside the right post. Six minutes later, the Knights struck again. After Mejia intercepted a pass at midfield, he dribbled 20 yards before getting the ball to Cristian Argueta, who spun away from his defender before drilling a shot to the right corner.

With the pace of the game starting to pick up, Sequoia finally got on the board two minutes later when Alvaro Zuniga one-timed a shot in front of the Hillsdale goal, the Cherokees' only shot on goal in the second half. But the Knights were simply too strong. In the 61st minute, they put the game away when Dmitry Wyman knocked home a rebound after Mejia's corner kick went off the hands of the Sequoia goalkeeper. Hillsdale recorded nine shots on goal to the Cherokees' four.

Sequoia missed a golden chance to go up 1-0 midway through the first half when Alan Juarez's header clanged off the top post. More often than not, Hillsdale got the better of the action, leaving the Cherokee players frustrated -- they were whistled for three yellow cards. Sequoia is at its best when Jose Garcia is pushing the action at midfield. But he was a non-factor, often finding no room to maneuver. Hodzic had his best defender -- stopper Michael Pleitez -- shadowing Garcia.

"If you contain Garcia, you can beat Sequoia," Hodzic said. "It's the same with us. If you contain Mejia, you slow down our attack. Pleitez did a great job today, and he did the same thing against (Capuchino forward Nick) Cukar. Sequoia is a tough team to play. We're pretty much the same team. They're skilled, we're skilled. Maybe we play a little better defense, and a little more organized." <