Sequoia boys' soccer team puts last year behind it

Sequoia, after a mid-table finish in the PAL Ocean Division, got hot at the end and went on a run, advancing to the CCS Division IV final.

But as is usually the case at the high school level, both teams experienced massive changes from last year to this year. As such, the coaches’ first goal is to get this year’s team to forget last year’s success.

At this point, Sequoia appears to be doing that better than Aragon.

Aragon (2-3-2) opened the scoring in a key non-league meeting Tuesday in Redwood City, but Sequoia (3-2-1) rallied for a pair of goals to pull out a 2-1 victory.

“Horrible,” is how Aragon head coach Joe Rousseau described his team’s play. “I don’t want to take anything away from Sequoia … but we’re our worst enemy.

“We scored first and you should never lose a game when you score first.”

Rousseau said he believes the returners to this year’s squad are still resting on the laurels of last season’s accomplishments.

Sequoia head coach Greg Markoulakis, on the other hand, believes his team has accomplished the goal of moving on from last season.

“I think we’ve accomplished the buy-in to the new season,” Markoulakis said. “What we’re working on now is making the [younger players] understand this (the high school game) is not high-level club or academy (play). The spacing and movement are going to be different.”

And in the case of Sequoia senior striker Leimana Makasini, the speed is different as well. Playing as a target striker in Markoulakis’ formation, Makasini showed off wheels that will make opposing defenders sweat this season.

He showed his speed on a through ball early in the game, to which he could not catch, but it was a sign of things to come.

“I told the boys, when you have a nuclear weapon, you have to use it. [Makasini] is a nuclear weapon,” Markoulakis said.

And he exploded when given the opportunity. Luke Shafer set the play in motion with a through ball from midfield toward the right flank that Makasini chased down, blowing past the defender in the process.

He carried the ball along the sideline and as he reached the endline, sent a cross to the front of the goal. Brian Shafer was making a run at the far left post and got to the pass, slotting it home to tie the score at 1-all in the 22nd minute.

“When he assisted that first goal and the way he waited for Bryan Shafer to get into position … you don’t see that kind of maturity,” Markoulakis said.

Aragon, which had started with a possession game, lost that and started playing long balls to the front. The Dons had a chance to retake the lead less than five minutes into the second half, earning a free kick just outside the penalty box. But Joshua Pereda’s shot attempt for the far left corner was saved with a dive from Sequoia goalkeeper Denilson Osorio.

The Dons struggled to get anything more substantial than long balls over the top, mixed in with the occasional free kick and a couple of corners, the rest of the way.

Sequoia, on the other hand, was continuing to make dangerous runs — including one from Alejandro Rodriguez, in which he ran onto a through ball from Ryan McDowell into the box. On a 50-50 challenge with the Aragon goalkeeper, Rodriguez was taken down, earning a penalty kick. Brian Shafer stepped up and scored his second goal of the game to give the Ravens a 2-1 lead.

Aragon kept pressing for the equalizer and the Dons thought they got it when the ball was put into the net off a corner-kick scramble. But the initial header on goal was parried over the top by Sequoia’s Osorio — and off the crossbar of the football goalpost, which hover right over the top of the soccer goal.

Aragon scored off that rebound, which was immediately wiped away. The Dons did earn another corner, the third of three straight, but could not convert.

The final 60 minutes of the game were nothing like how the Dons started the game. Playing a high-possession game, they knocked the ball around and had Sequoia scrambling in the midfield.

In the fifth minute, a strong piece of dribbling and a perfect assist gave Aragon a 1-0 lead. Nikhil Yoon won a battle for the ball just past the midfield stripe. He then beat two more defenders and turned upfield and on goal.

As the defense collapsed on him at the top of the box, Yoon laid off a perfect pass to his right, into the path of a charging Brian Cervantes, who side-footed a one-timer to the far left corner of the net.

From there, however, Sequoia figured things out in the midfield and started to gain control, which helped jump-start the Ravens’ offense.

“We lost our shape in the midfield,” Markoulakis said, adding that the regrouping of his midfield group was the key to turning the tide of the game.

“Today we had a breakthrough in an understanding of our midfield and the connectivity necessary to be successful,” Markoulakis said.