The Española Valley boys soccer team surpassed surpassed its victory total for the entire 2008 season by winning a pair of games Sept. 5 at the Desert Academy Invitational in Santa Fe.
After being beaten 9-2 by host Desert Academy Sept. 4 in the opening round of the tournament, Española overwhelmed West Las Vegas 8-0 in its next game and walloped Santa Fe Waldorf 7-0 to improve to 3-2 on the season. The Sundevils finished last season with a 2-19 record.
“They finally believe in themselves,” Española’s first-year coach Ifeatu Oboli said. “They’re going to win more games. I have no doubt about that.”
The Sundevils began the season Aug. 27 with a 2-1 loss to Robertson High School but picked up its first win two days later with a 3-0 shutout of Pojoaque.
The Sundevils started the Desert Academy tournament by falling behind Academy 6-0 in the first half. But where prior Española teams may have surrendered, this Sundevil team rallied for two goals by Luis Chavira to gain a measure of respect against the eventual tournament champions.
“I talked to them at halftime,” Oboli said. “They were not playing their game.”
The Sundevils started slowly again in their next game. Despite clearly being the better team, the Sundevils led just 1-0 at halftime over West Las Vegas.
“They were trying to do too much on their own,” Oboli said. “I told them, ‘This is not how we play.’ Play with your heads and not your mouths.”
Senior Eduardo Grajeda led the Sundevils’ second-half onslaught. Grajeda, who had never scored more than one goal in a season, had a hat trick. Jonathan Peralta added two goals, while Chavira and Christian Ortega scored a goal apiece.
“Last year, we probably would have lost to these guys,” Grajeda said. “We’re 10 times better.”
The Sundevils didn’t wait for the second half to get started against Waldorf. Grajeda scored in the first minute of the game to ignite the Sundevils’ rout.
The Española boys soccer program has struggled since 2001, when the Sundevils had to cancel their season they could not find a coach. The Sundevils had to play the 2002 and 2003 seasons as independents and ironically this was when the team had its last winning seasons, going 12-2 and 12-1 during that time.
Oboli was hired in May after former coach Adam Drew resigned after five seasons.
“(Oboli) is a good coach,” Grajeda said. “He got us in shape, worked on the basics and we’re doing more things.”