Nueva School makes history with first-ever CCS girls’ soccer win

Nueva now advances to the CCS semifinals for the first time in program history. They will host No. 3 Wilcox at Skyline College Wednesday at 3 p.m.

“We’ve created history by getting past the first round, getting to the semis,” Nueva head coach Daniel Zerabruk said. “We’ve never done it before. And this was the great outstanding group … this senior team. This grade was the one we knew could do something special this year.”

Tavares is a four-year varsity senior but hasn’t played in the postseason since her freshman year, missing the previous two CCS tournaments. The last time she stepped onto the playoff pitch was as a freshman in 2019-20 against Sacred Heart Prep, when the Mavericks scored the first goal of the day only to be overrun for an 8-1 loss.

“I was like: That’s not happening,” Tavares said of stepping onto the field Saturday.

In fact, it was the opposite. This time around, Harker (11-7-2) scored the first goal of the day, when sophomore forward Claire Anderson took a through ball up the gut and angled around a defender to cross it in, giving the Eagles a 1-0 advantage in the fourth minute.

With Anderson cutting a sharp angle at close range, Nueva goalkeeper Luki Deitchman didn’t have a prayer of stopping the shot. But her response echoed strongly throughout Freitas Field as she stood on her line just after the initial goal, yelling to her teammates they had plenty of time.

“I knew this was going to be a hard game coming in, so I was a bit concerned,” Deitchman said. “But I know we’re a strong team, and there was plenty of time left.”

It didn’t take long for Nueva to answer back. Tavares scored three first-half goals, with the equalizer in the seventh minute, a go-ahead score in the 12th, and an insurance goal in the 23rd.

“I think you always have to (be thinking ‘comeback’),” Tavares said. “Every time you’re standing up there right after they score, you kind of feel like this is our moment, and this is our opportunity to take it back. So, I think that’s always definitely present.”

Tavares added her fourth goal just after halftime in the 42nd minute. Harker got one back in the 62nd minute on a fine free kick delivered by junior Anya Chauhan from 25 yards away. But minutes later, in the 65th minute, Tavares finished off her haul by returning from a yellow card with a jolt of energy, driving from midfield to blast a shot on the run from just outside the 18-yard box. Harker senior Lexi Wong closed out the scoring with a late goal from 10 yards behind the hash by planting a crisp left-footed shot into the top corner of the net.

“Today we had to try to get the ball to our forwards a little quicker than we usually do,” Zerabruk said. “So, Mia was seeing more of the ball today than usually.”

Nueva typically runs a more possession-style attack, but mixed things up against Harker.

“We compromised that a little today to try to feed our forwards a bit quicker,” Zerabruk said. “Because we felt like we could hurt the team when we have good 1-v-1 players.”

The Mavericks have had to change things up since a season-ending knee injury to freshman forward Juliet Chen, who scored a hat trick Jan. 25 before the injury occurred later that game. Freshman Patrice Gray-Martinez took over Chen’s forward position at right wing.

“Julie was an amazing wing,” Tavares said. “So, it meant there was different passing opportunities, and different opportunities that were being made to break lines. So, I think with that, just the amount of line breaking that happened by me went up.”

On defense, Deitchman put on a clinic, especially in the first half. The sophomore stayed aggressive to cut off attacks and totaled upwards of 10 saves in the game.

However, the best defensive sequence of the day came from junior defender Alyse Graham-Martinez, who turned in quite a hustle play in the 50th minute. Harker broke through the back rank and sent a quick tap bounding through traffic and over the hands of Deitchman. Junior defender Zoe Barton was between her keeper and the goal line, and got a piece of it, but the ball was still bounding on goal when Alyse Graham-Martinez raced in from outside the keeper’s box to clear it at the last second.

“That was a fantastic job by Alyse,” Barton said. “There was like four players in the box, so I was so glad. Then I went over and high-fived her afterwards. I was like: ‘You’re insane!’”

Nueva also made history by playing its first-ever game at Serra. The Mavericks don’t have an on-campus soccer field and have played most of their home games this season at Skyline College. Last year, in the CCS Division IV opener, Nueva hosted at Crystal Springs Uplands, where it fell 2-0 to North Salinas after allowing both goals on corner kicks.

“Which didn’t really help our style, because Crystal Springs is really kind of small and narrow,” Zerabruk said. “We were really upset last year because I thought we were the better team against North Salinas. We reflected after that game and said: Hey, look, there’s certain things we have to improve on.”

The Mavericks took last year’s CCS loss to heart and have yet to allow a goal on a corner kick this season.

“That was something we really wanted to improve on for this season,” Zerabruk said.