Crystal’s culture paying off

That first season was far from fun, as the Gryphons went 0-14. But eight years later, Miranda is seeing the fruits of his labor. It was the culture that he has established and built that led to a handful of players rejoining the team for their senior seasons and one last hurrah.

It could not have worked out better for Crystal. Lucas Shotts, the West Bay Athletic League Midfielder of the Year, returned to the team after two seasons away, along with midfielder/wing Ben Fair and forward Rik Shah, who joined twin brother Dylan Shah, a defender, for his senior year after three years of basketball. They have helped the Gryphons ride a wave they’ve never been on before. After a 12-2-2 regular season that saw them finish third in the highly competitive West Bay Athletic League, they earned the top seed in the Central Coast Section Division V bracket, going on to beat Soledad 1-0 for the program’s first-ever CCS championship.

Saturday, Crystal (20-2-2) will try to add a Northern California title as the second-seeded Gryphons will go on the road to top-seeded Branson-Marin County (12-6-3) at 3 p.m. Saturday at Novato High School.

“A lot of my friends were talking about how much fun it was playing for the soccer team,” Shotts said after Thursday’s 5-0 rout of visiting Nipomo in a semifinal match in Hillsborough.

When Shotts decided to return to the team, he convinced Fair and Shah to come along, too.

“[This team] has tons of kids I’ve known for seven years, since middle school,” Shotts said.

Miranda, who also coaches for the San Francisco Glens club program, said this is the kind of organic recruiting he wants to see, because he doesn’t go out and do it himself.

“It’s just the culture we’ve created,” Miranda said. “I didn’t convince Lucas to come back. I didn’t convince Ben to come back. … Players are talking among themselves in the hallways (on campus).

“My first year, there was very little interest (in the team) and very few wanted to play. Now, we have players who want to represent (the school) and be part of it.”

It certainly helps to have a player of Shotts’ caliber to come back into the Gryphons’ fold. He lit up the competition this season. His hat trick and assist against Nipomo gives him 27 goals and nine assists on the season.

But the Gryphons are so much more than just that. Danté Martin has benefited from Shotts’ arrival, as well. The team’s leading scorer as a sophomore last season, Martin has 11 goals this season, including the opener Thursday.

But again, Crystal is so much more than just its offense. The back line and goalkeeper Max Slavet, the WBAL Goalkeeper of the Year who moved into a starting role this season, have been as stingy as defense, having allowed 15 goals through 24 games.

Jimmy Naylor and Kai Wu anchor the middle of the defense, with Dylan Shah shutting down the left side and Ethan Chan, who is starting for the first time this season as a senior, controls the right side.

“Their strength is anticipating and reading (the opposition),” Miranda said of Shah and Chan.

Add in midfielders Daniel Laws and Kristian Bisgaard and the Gryphons are as talented as any team in the county.

But it is the Gryphons’ tenacity that is really their calling card. Miranda demands his players give maximum effort at every turn. That means pressing the defense with purpose, it means going for every ball and never giving up.

In the beginning of his tenure, that’s all Miranda’s team could really hang their hats on was their effort.

“We celebrated the slide tackles (in those first few seasons). … If we got one header in a game, we would celebrate that. Little by little, those were the little steps we needed to take to look hungry,” Miranda said. “How do we show we want it more? By challenging everything in the air. Running at it until the ball rolls out of bounds.

“Effort is what we celebrate. If it’s celebrated across the board, then you get a team that looks hungry.”

The Branson Bulls will be just as hungry to win at Nor Cal title. The Bulls went just 3-4-1 in finishing in sixth place in the nine-team Marin County Athletic League.

But Branson still earned the No. 2 seed in the North Coast Section Division 4 bracket and ended up upsetting No. 1 Petaluma in a high-scoring affair in the championship game, 5-3, which earned the Bulls the top seed in the Nor Cal Division V bracket.

Branson (12-6-3) beat No. 8 Hamilton 2-0 in the first round Tuesday and then shut out No. 4 Fremont 3-0 to advance to Saturday’s championship game.

And while Miranda will do his best to make sure his team is prepared for the Bulls, the focus is really on themselves.

“We found a way to celebrate the ‘how’ of the work,” Miranda said. “Winning is fun, yes, and ultimately, in a competitive environment, it’s the top.

“But we’re searching for the ‘how.’ How do we get there? That was important to instill eight years ago.”

Girls’ soccer

Division IV

No. 2 Twelve Bridges-Lincoln 0, No. 3 Menlo School 0

Twelve Bridges wins 6-5 in penalty kicks

The Knights saw their season come to agonizing end as they came up short in penalty kicks against the Raging Rhinos Thursday in the Sierra foothills.

After 80 minutes of scoreless regulation and 20 more minutes of overtime, the game was decided at the penalty spot. In the first round of penalty kicks, each team gets five and both Menlo (11-4-7) and Twelve Bridges (16-4-1) both made their first five kicks.

But the Rhinos made their sixth, while the Knights missed to end the season.