Daily Journal Athlete of the Week: Hillsdale’s Emiliano Lopez

The teacher was current Hillsdale boys’ soccer head coach Jaime Gomez, who was then running a San Mateo County FC team consisting of Welmer Merida Quixtan and Sebastian Nowak, among other future Knights. Now, with Hillsdale sitting in first place in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division, it is the trio anchoring the team’s outstanding defense, with Merida Quixtan and Nowak playing the backfield, and Lopez the anchor at goalkeeper.

“We have that Bernardo and Welmer duo back there, so we have that chemistry,” Lopez said. “So, it’s all been working out.”

Lopez has been selected Daily Journal Athlete of the Week for extending a superb streak of shutouts. Reigning Central Coast Section Division II champion Hillsdale is in the midst of six straight shutouts, having not yielded a goal since Jan. 9 in a 1-1 draw at Woodside.

Four of those shutouts belong to Lopez in goal, including blanking back-to-back opponents last week with a 0-0 draw at Menlo-Atherton and a 1-0 home victory over Sequoia.

“One thing that works out on our defense is just how we’re not stingy,” Lopez said. “We’re not selfish back there. We just want it to be perfect.”

Lopez proved his selflessness two weeks ago when he signed off on senior goalkeeper Logan Baker taking the start Jan. 14 against Burlingame. That’s where the shutout streak began, as the Knights rallied for a 1-0 win. After Lopez anchored a scoreless draw Jan. 16 against Carlmont, Baker returned to the cage to shut out Aragon in a 1-0 Hillsdale win.

“We don’t really care who plays,” Lopez said. “We’ve just established that we want to win. We don’t care who it is.”

Since then, Lopez has started three games, including a 2-0 shutout Jan. 23 at South City.

“He’s been very important,” Gomez said. “The confidence he instills in the team, the trust everyone has in him. Just having a CCS champion goalkeeper back there, last year’s champion and all-league. When he’s there, our team is filled with a different confidence. ... They know Emi’s back there and he’s going to get the job done.”

Lopez is the reigning PAL Ocean Division Goalkeeper of the Year, and is now trying to accomplish something that hasn’t been done since 2014 — win the upper PAL Bay Division championship one year after winning the title in the lower Ocean Division. The last team to do so was Half Moon Bay.

“That’s what I want to do,” Lopez said. “I want to make history here at Hillsdale and be Bay champions here. Hillsdale’s never done it, and that’s my priority right now.”

Hillsdale is currently sitting in first place with first place with 21 points in a tight race that could shift quickly and dramatically over the last five regular-season games. Burlingame, in second place, has 20 points. Third-place Woodside has 18. Even fourth-place Menlo-Atherton is still alive in the race with 14 points.

“The draw against M-A was good for us,” Gomez said of Lopez’s shutout last Tuesday. “I think we had an opportunity to win the game. They’re one of the few teams that came out and played against us. Other teams have been just sitting back, sitting back.”

Lopez totaled six saves in the game, with two stone-cold gems. In the first half, he left his feet on a sharp shot toward the inside post, and got fingertips on it to push it wide. In the second one, the senior got twisted while leaving his feet for penalty kick spinning toward the left post, and again saved the day.

Against Sequoia, he made a first-half goal from senior Bernardo Chaparro stand up by recording one save on the Ravens’ three shots on goal.

Lopez said he doesn’t think about the score or even the situation. His is an in-the-zone, all-out, all-the-time style that is the same as it was in his first shutout of the year — 4-0 against South City — as it was last week when the Knights scored just one goal in two games.

When he is focused on, however, is another PAL championship. While there are several teams breathing down the Knights’ neck, it is, for the moment, theirs to lose.

“Everyone wants the rings,” Lopez said. “And everyone wants to beat us also. We want to repeat, but it takes the whole team for us to get there.”