Hillsdale holds it own against NCS power

“We won CCS on Saturday, (Monte Vista coach Beau Fisher) calls me up that (following) Wednesday,” said Hillsdale head coach Jaime Gomez.

The Knights, however, were still playing in the Northern California regional tournament, so Gomez didn’t return the call right away. After losing in the Nor Cal final and taking a couple days to decompress, Gomez finally got back to Fisher, who had been diligently staying in touch.

“He kept emailing,” Gomez said. “He was very persistent.”

The game was finally set up. But Monte Vista is not some low-level school looking to make a name for itself. The Mustangs are a perennial North Coast Section Division I contender, with four NCS DI titles under their belts over the last 20 years, the last as recently as 2023.

So there was absolutely no shame in the Knights’ 2-0 loss to Monte Vista in Hillsdale’s season opener.

“I was trying to find teams that would be like the one we’ll play in the Bay (Division),” Gomez said. “[Monte Vista] is like a Carlmont or M-A. But I don’t think we’ll see a team like this.”

Actually, Monte Vista may be a little step above even the Scots and and the Bears as the Mustangs play in arguably the toughest league in Northern California — the East Bay Athletic League.

And while the Mustangs were bigger and more physical, Hillsdale countered it with speed and most of the game was played in the midfield. Monte Vista may had a bit more of the possession, but the Knights were not at all on their back foot and they calmly absorbed the Mustangs’ attack and forced their defense to defend, as well.

After the opening 10 minutes, the Mustangs started to compress the Knights into their own end, but the defensive line — anchored by Welmer Merida Quixtan and Gabe Lee DiPaolo — stayed poised and calmly cleared away any major threats.

And there weren’t many of them. In fact, the Knights outshot the Mustangs, putting two shots on frame that were both saved.

But in the minutes before halftime, Monte Vista showed how dangerous it could and provided a harbinger of things to come in the second half. Mustangs center striker Colin Job received a pass just past midfield and quickly found Colin Huberty on the left wing. He carried it up the sideline before switching field and sending a long cross to the right wing, where Isaac Haloulas came flying in, hammering a shot off the outside of the goal frame in the 33rd minute.

But in the second half, the Mustangs finished their counters and both came in response to quality Hillsdale build ups.

In the opening five minutes of the second half, Hillsdale had a couple of free kicks in the Monte Vista end, along with a corner.

And it was off the corner kick that the Mustangs struck. The ball was cleared toward midfield, where Monte Vista’s Huberty sprinted past his mark to win the loose ball and laid off a back pass to a teammate, who instantly sent a ball over the top of the Hillsdale defense to a streaking Job.

Hillsdale’s Merida Quixtan stayed in the race and as Job tried to cut the ball back, he ran into more defenders. The ball bounced off a few shins before the ball popped through into space. Huberty, who was trailing the play, stayed with it and fired a one-timer into the net with the goalkeeper off his line to give the Mustangs a 1-0 lead in the 44th minute.

But Hillsdale kept fighting. The Knights responded to the goal with a quick restart and ball out to the wing to Bernardo Chaparro, whose shot to the near post was saved. The Knights kept earning free kicks as they continued to put pressure on the Monte Vista defense.

But then the Mustangs caught the Knights napping in the 64th minute, as they again caught Hillsdale on the counter. It was Hillsdale that was on the attack and just could not quite put together that last pass.

The Mustangs won the ball and a couple passes later, Ali Elagroudy was tapping home a pass into an empty net to put Monte Vista up 2-0.

“We got caught on counters. We knew they were good on it,” Gomez said. “And it came (against) our best moments.”

Hillsdale had a chance to avoid the shutout when Christian Salamanca made a nice run, beating one defender before getting taken down in the penalty box to draw a penalty kick. But the Monte Vista goalkeeper dove to his right to make the save and keep the clean sheet.

Despite the loss, Gomez was encouraged by what he saw in the first game of the season.

“I can’t say anything bad. It was a good performance,” Gomez said. “I thought the boys did well. We created some opportunities.”