Soccer finishes third in league; lose to Merced in playoffs
Soccer team players high-five each other in excitement after a scored goal in a game against Lathrop High.
November 19, 2014
The Tracy High boys’ soccer team ended its season in the first round of the Sac-Joaquin section playoffs with a loss, 3-1, to Merced High.
“I was definitely pleased with the outcome of this season,” coach Phil Kalis said. “I have nothing to be disappointed about; there is always room for improvement next season.”
Tracy’s overall season record was 10-4-6, and a league record of 7-3-5, good for third place.
“It was a nice accomplishment for the team making playoffs two years in a row,” Kalis said. “We are cautiously optimistic for playoffs next year.”
Six seniors are leaving this year, but most of the team will return.
This was the first time that the boys’ soccer team made playoffs in two consecutive years.
“The season overall went much better than I expected,” senior Angelo Alejandro said. “I was hoping to win league, but I am happy that my last season ended the way it did.”
This was Alejandro’s last season ever playing soccer and said he cried on his last game since he has been playing soccer for as long as he can remember.
“It felt great ending the season in playoffs,” Alejandro said. “Our team has a strong bond, and all of the guys will be truly missed.”
Alejandro does not have plans to play soccer at the collegiate level.
Junior Johnny Marin said that losing in the first round of playoffs was bad, and blamed the loss heavily on himself.
“The first two goals made by Merced were my fault,” Marin said. “I knew what to do and I could have and should have handled it way better than I did.”
Besides the playoff loss to Merced, Marin was satisfied with the team’s season.
“It felt great that Coach Kalis was excited about going to playoffs two years in a row,” Marin said. “It’s always an accomplishment to make the coach happy.”
Kalis said the main thing his team was disappointed about was that they were not league champions.
“Winning league will be one of our top priorities next year,” Kalis said, “besides moving on to playoffs again.”
Kalis said his favorite memory of the season was beating Tokay, since Tokay was in first place in league at the time and the team played really well.
