The Mission Bay boys soccer team earned its place in the Div. III CIF semifinals and will travel to El Centro to take on Central Union High School on Wednesday, Feb. 25 after a dramatic 1-0 victory over Canyon Crest Academy in the quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 22.
“It’s going to be a tough game for us in the semifinal round,” said Mission Bay head coach Joe Panian. “I’m going to be looking at the tape having already seen their record and who they have played.” The game-winning goal against Canyon Crest came courtesy of Spencer Morton, which was just a couple of days after the Bucs dispatched Preuss School UCSD 4-0 led by a hat-trick from forward Jackson Villani and another score from Tiesto Kleisli.
“It feels really good considering it was my second one and it helped secure the game by the time I got subbed out,” said Villani. “The game against Canyon Crest was much closer and very tight. We had to come through on defense and find a way to close out the match.”
The hat-trick was Villani’s second of the season with the previous one coming on Feb. 4 against the same opponent in a 5-1 victory.
“There was an adversity of being ranked high and having to play away the first game in a difficult environment with regards to a smaller field,” Panian added. “We were able to rise above it and come together as a team to put in a great performance to win.”
Mission Bay also got several outstanding performances on the defensive end during the regular tallying six shutouts and outscoring its opponents 48-20 to finish with a 12-3-3 record before beating both playoff opponents by a combined 5-0 scoreline.
“It shows the resiliency of the whole team with regards to shutting out our opponents in both games but specifically our defenders and goalkeeper,” Panian said.
As for Central Union High School, it comes into the semifinals with an impressive 22-2-4 record overall having defeated Francis Parker and Granite Hills by a combined 11-0 scoreline in the playoffs. The Spartans outscored its opponents by a resounding 82-23 during the regular season and tallied 12 shutouts with two of those ending in scoreless draws against Imperial High School.
