Alameda High School Mens Varsity Soccer Starts 0-2 in League Play, 4-3 Overall

The games were close, the competition was fierce, and tempers flared during the first week of league play for the Hornets mens varsity soccer team. 

First came the “Big Buzzdown” between Alameda and its Berkeley insect rivals, the Yellowjackets, on Dec. 6 in Alameda, when the Yellowjackets stung the Hornets 2-1 in a closely played battle.

Two days later, on Dec. 8, the Hornets traveled to Hercules to take on the Titans, where the Alameda offense couldn’t establish any rhythm in a 2-0 Hercules victory. 

Lastly, in non-league action, Alameda rebounded with a 4-0 win over Mission San Jose on Dec. 10. 

Berkeley 2, Alameda 1, on Alameda’s Thompson Field on Dec. 6

Starting North Coast Section league play with a 3-1 non-league record built with the help of a solid, experienced defense (featuring senior backs Alejandro Ramirez-Jasso, Tomas Martinez-Granata, Amir Razavi, and Ron Desmond, along with junior goalkeeper Erik VanWinkle), Alameda was feeling quietly confident about its chances versus perennial league power Berkeley. 

That confidence showed in the first half, when Alameda jumped to a 1-0 lead, and had a few other golden scoring opportunities. On the one that found the net, Hornets sophomore forward Laurent Siroit volleyed in a rebound off a long free kick by Amir Razavi at the 19 minute mark. That woke up Berkeley, and the rest of the half was pretty evenly matched. Berkeley outshot Alameda 9-5 in the first 40 minutes, but Alameda had the better scoring opportunities. It was Berkeley, however, that scored the half’s only other goal, a nicely played cross and header combination at the 38 minute mark, resulting in a 1-1 tie at halftime. 

Berkeley really put the pressure on to start the second half, and ended up outshooting Alameda 9-3 for the half. But after the six-minute mark, Alameda began countering, including two near-scores on corner kicks. However, it was Berkeley that finally broke the tie, scoring on a half-volley at the 33:45 mark.  Alameda battled hard in the final minutes to tie the score, but came up just short. It was a great game by both teams, and a terrific competitive contest to start the North Coast season. 

Hercules 2, Alameda 0, in Hercules on Dec. 8

Perhaps it was inevitable that Alameda would have a bit of a letdown after the intensity of the Berkeley game. Matters were compounded by injuries and other commitments, which meant that Alameda was missing some key players. 

Whatever the case was, the Hornets looked a little flat in this road game, and it cost them. Hercules outshot and outhustled Alameda in both halves, and the Titans could easily have led 2-0 at halftime after two near-misses that struck the crossbar and sidebar of the Hornets’ goal.  Instead, it was 0-0 at the break. 

That didn’t last long. Hercules came out aggressively to start the second half, and scored in the first two minutes on a long free kick.  The Hornets tried to counter with a nice run by sophomore forward Laurent Siroit at the 12 minute mark, but the Titans goalkeeper made a great leg save on a slide tackle. 

Another key play of the game occurred two minutes later, when junior outside defensive back Matt Neff was red-carded. Not only did this knock Neff out of the contest and force Alameda to play short-handed for the rest of the game, it was Neff’s second red card this season, which automatically disqualifies him from playing in the remainder of Alameda’s games. 

Hercules, which really didn’t need any more favors in this game, capitalized on its advantage and applied more pressure, scoring on another free kick at the 33 minute mark to effectively end the contest and send the Hornets varsity home empty-handed on this cold December night. 

Varsity Bounces Back from Hercules Loss with Big Mission San Jose Win

 In non-league, weekend action, Alameda exploded with four second-half goals after a scoreless first-half tie, totally dominating the last 40 minutes to defeat the visiting Mission San Jose Warriors 4-0 on Dec. 10 at Alameda’s Thompson Field. 

The Hornets’ wing forwards swarmed with a purpose in the second half, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes. The first came just a minute into the half on a long ball from the right sideline by senior outside forward Danny Radding. It was probably intended to be a crossing ball, but it veered into the upper left corner of the net…a perfect shot. Four-and-a-half minutes later, junior outside forward Boyan Tzvetkov scored from the left wing, and the rout was on over a clearly demoralized Warriors team. 

At the 13:30 mark, Alameda senior outside back Alejandro Ramirez-Jasso was tripped in the penalty box after a long run up the left sideline, and subsequently scored on the resulting penalty kick. The Hornets’ final score was tallied by senior attack midfielder Sasha Michkovsky, who slammed in a rebound off a hard shot by sophomore outside forward Kenny Lee. 

JV Bounces Back from Berkeley Loss with Big Hercules Win, Tie vs. Mission San Jose 

The Alameda mens JV team’s first two league games were considerably more one-sided than the varsity’s.  A very solid and mature Berkeley JV team (Berkeley, with nearly double Alameda’s enrollment, has a separate freshmen team) outpassed, outshot and outscored the mostly freshmen (11 freshmen, 5 sophomores, 3 juniors) Alameda JV team 5-0 on Dec. 6.  However, the Hornet underclassmen bounced back to trample the Titans JV 5-0 on Dec. 8 and tie Mission San Jose 1-1 on Dec. 10. 

The bounce-back victory over Hercules was the JV team’s first win this season, after two ties and two losses, and represented their highest scoring output by far. Team captain sophomore forward Nick Chen kicked off the scoring with two early goals, the first coming just four minutes into the first half off a nice feed by freshman midfielder Marc Osborn. 

Good passing also generated Alameda’s third and fourth goals. At the 21-minute mark, sophomore forward Fischer Davis fed freshman forward Moises Powell for a breakaway goal, for a 3-0 lead, then, minutes later, junior forward Jacob Charney headed freshman midfielder Michael Woodworth’s sublime crossing pass into the Titan net. Freshman forward Kenyon Ebert closed out the Alameda scoring near the end of the first half with an opportunistic goal off a pass he intercepted from the Hercules defense. 

Meanwhile, Alameda’s freshman goalkeeper Jake Coghe got some relief (and his second shutout of the season) in the Hercules game, after being the target of nearly 30 shots in the Berkeley game. Helping to keep the pressure off Coghe, sophomore Emmett Kaake had a strong game at the outside defensive back position.  Also solid, with good passing, were freshman inside defensive backs Riley Jiang and Ian Thorne, and freshman midfielder Dyonis Jauregui.  Freshman forward Chris Lovelady kept pressure on the Titans goalkeeper in the second half. 

The JVs played in a much tighter non-league home game vs. the Mission San Jose Warriors on Dec. 10, which resulted in an exciting, comeback 1-1 tie. After getting beat for an early first-half goal by the Warriors, the Hornets defense stiffened for the rest of the game. The Warriors goalkeeper was very good, but his over-aggressiveness on one play in his penalty area resulted in a second-half penalty kick for Alameda, which freshman forward Moises Powell converted. After this latest tie, the Alameda JV team’s record stands at 1 win, 2 losses, and 3 ties.