Burlingame grad faces alma mater in Open Division soccer tourney

The Panthers qualified for the Open by the skin of their teeth, outlasting Live Oak by half a power point to become the eighth and final team into the section’s top playoff bracket with a 12-2-6 record.

The bad news for Burlingame is, as the eighth seed, it faces the top team in CCS in No. 1 seed Mountain View (17-2-3). While Burlingame head coach Phillip DeRosa was not thrilled with the prospects of playing in the Open Division, he almost had no choice as the Panthers’ chase for a Bay Division title put them on the Open Division bubble. A win in the regular-season finale over Woodside would have tied M-A for the Bay title, but the Bears would have been the first seeded team out of the division because they held the tiebreaker over the Panthers.

It all became moot after the Panthers played the Wildcats to a 2-2 tie.

“I knew it (a spot in the Open Division as the No. 8 seed) was coming,” DeRosa said.

The game takes on even more significance because Mountain View head coach Ivan Bandov is a 2003 graduate of Burlingame where he helped guide the Panthers to a pair of final four playoff appearances, including an overtime loss to Santa Cruz in the 2003 CCS championship game. He then cut his coaching teeth with the Panthers’ girls’ and boys’ junior varsity squad, in addition to becoming a staple with the Juventus Sport Club.

“My background with Burlingame makes it a little extra exciting for me,” Bandov said. “[DeRosa] was my teacher. I think it was physics.”

Bandov got into coaching immediately after graduating, working with then-boys’ coach Fred Cesano for a season. He then took over the Burlingame girls’ JV squad for a season, before spending five seasons with the boys’ JV squad.

He then moved on to Mountain View and has seen nothing but success. Since taking over beginning the 2011-12 season, Bandov’s Spartan teams have won the last six Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division titles, has made five CCS championship appearances — including last season — and has won three section titles in 2012, 2015 and 2017.

“It will be a stiff challenge,” said DeRosa, who said he still talks to Bandov regularly. “I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel any personal pressure. We’re clearly the underdog. But I’m looking to see how my defense will hold up against [Mountain View’s] offense.”

Bandov and the Spartans have certainly benefited from having a slew of talent come through the school over the last decade. The Mountain View-Los Altos Soccer Club is one of the best and Bandov said there is still a desire among the student-athletes to play — and excel — for their high school.

“We’re lucky (to have this flow of talent). MVLA is one of the better girls’ (club) programs in Northern California. That’s a big part [of the school’s success],” Bandov said. “And, they want to do well for their high school.”

Despite losing a number of key players to graduation, the Spartans simply reloaded this season, adding freshman sensation Allie Montoya, who has already orally committed to play at Stanford. Montoya leads the Spartans with 15 goals and has added 16 assists. Sistine Noel is only a sophomore, but is the Spartans’ attack midfielder who not only runs the offense, but finishes as well. She is second on the team with 11 goals and is tied with Montoya with 16 assists on the season.

Injuries on the defensive line might be the Spartans’ weak link, but Bandov said another freshman, Charis Toney, has rounded back into shape the last couple weeks after missing time with an injury.

Despite the success his team’s have had, Bandov is under no illusion that Saturday’s 1 p.m. home game against Burlingame will be a walk in the park, regardless of the seedings.

“We’ve had a lot of success, but I say in the Open, everyone in there has done well this season. There is no such thing as an easy game,” Bandov said. “Burlingame doesn’t give up a lot of goals. We’ll have to play a quality game to beat them.”

The Panthers also spent the first half of the season scoring goals. But a couple of key injuries have forced the Panthers to alter their game tactics.

Senior Mia Fontana appeared in only eight games and scored five goals before a stress fracture in her foot cut her season short. Freshman Amelie Pianim was having a breakout year, scoring 14 goals and assisting on eight others through 12 games before she, too, was knocked out for the season with injury.

If there is a silver lining to this, it’s that the rest of the Panthers have had the time necessary to adjust to the missing offense and have really locked down the opposition defensively. Over Burlingame’s final eight games, the defense has allowed a total of three goals as they went 4-0-3 down the stretch.

“I made adjustments with formations, adjustments with the system of play. They’ve had a lot of time to adjust to each other,” DeRosa said. “How they finished up (the regular season), you could say the girls really played well and I was pleasantly surprised with the success that they had.”