Hillsdale, M-A fit to be tied

M-A, meanwhile, hasn’t lost a game in Bay Division since a Feb. 7, 2024 2-0 loss to Carlmont in the penultimate game of the 2023-24 season. Since then, the Bears have gone 17 straight Bay Division games without a loss, going 11-0-6.

Both teams left the field Wednesday with their streaks intact as neither managed to find the back of the net in a scoreless draw.

“I expected a really competitive game,” said Hillsdale head coach Jaime Gomez.

The game was even more personal for both teams. Both Gomez and his M-A counterpart, Brian Mansell, work together with San Mateo County Football Club and many of the players on both teams play on the same club teams.

That could explain a chippy game that saw a half dozen yellow cards, hard fouls all over the field and constant starts and stops as both teams were constantly setting up for free kicks.

And while there were not a whole lot of dangerous chances, the ones that did threaten the goal were turned aside by both goalkeepers.

Both Hillsdale’s Emi Lopez and M-A’s Torrey Franz came up big when their teams needed them the most. Franz came up with the first big save of the day, as he made a diving save by pushing wide at the post a Nisith Andrabadu shot in the 27th minute.

Just before halftime, it was Lopez who was tested, when he turned away a screamer in the 38th minute.

In the 65th minute, Lopez came up big again. M-A received a free kick just outside the penalty box. Louis Koide stepped up and punched a shot on goal, one that seemed destined for the left corner.

But at full stretch, Lopez got a hand to the shot and pushed it off the post before being cleared out for a penalty kick.

It was another brilliant save from Lopez, who has been doing it since starting for the Knights as a sophomore.

“He was all-league his sophomore year, all-league his junior year. That’s his expectation,” Gomez. “He was the man of the match.”

Franz, however, made his own bid for that honor as he got his fingertips to a rocket of a shot off a free kick from Hillsdale’s Tyler Hughes. Lining up on the left side of the field from 25 yards out, Hughes had the upper right corner picked out, but Franz got just enough of a touch on the ball to send it wide for a corner kick in the 80th minute.

This coming minutes after the Knights had an even better chance when Hughes drew a penalty kick, but they came up empty when the ensuing shot hit off the crossbar.

Those were the only real chances either team had as both defenses did a good job of thwarting any attacks from getting deep in the penalty box.

M-A did a good job of not giving Hillsdale the freedom to roam and link pass after pass together. Additionally, the Bears were not simply absorbing the Knights’ attack. They were actively trying to counter it.

“And they almost got it — a couple times,” Gomez said. “[M-A was] good defensively. They reduced the space we wanted to attack.

“A lot of teams we play, they just park the bus (put almost all their players in the defensive end of the field). … M-A is one of the few teams to come out and attack us.”

For Hillsdale (6-0-2 PAL Bay, 20 points; 8-1-5 overall) the tie is just one more point toward what the Knights hope is a 2026 Bay Division title, to go along with their 2025 Ocean Division and Central Coast Section Division II championships. Hillsdale entered the game with a four-point lead over Burlingame and that advantage remained the same after the Panthers beat Sequoia, 1-0.

For M-A (2-0-5, 11 points; 4-4-4), the draw gives them one more point, but the Bears really need to start getting some wins if they are going to earn an automatic bid to the playoffs.

M-A’s tie, coupled with a 2-0 win from third-place Woodside, set the Bears back three points of the Wildcats in fourth place.

The top-three finishers in the Bay earn about berths into the CCS playoffs.

Hillsdale to celebrate 50th anniversary of first soccer team

There will be a brief ceremony ahead of the Knights’ home game against Sequoia Friday as the school will honor the 50th anniversary of the first soccer team fielded by the school in 1976.

That first team was coached by Guy Oling, longtime Peninsula soccer coach, official and teacher at both Hillsdale and Aragon.

Scott Ludwig, who was on the first Knights’ team, said in an email that Hillsdale was the only school in the district that did not have a soccer program, so a group of soccer players and the school petitioned to start one. Principal Ray Allee agreed and within weeks, the Knights took the field — as a co-ed squad.

Both varsity and junior varsity players from that 1976 team will be attendance, beginning at 4:30 p.m.