Sacred Heart Prep boys soccer stays perfect on senior day

By Greg Lydon

Hub Correspondent

With 12 seniors donning their white and maroon uniforms for the final time at home, there was really only one suitable way to go out for the Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton boys soccer team.

The twelve Gators seniors were recognized before the game, but it was a junior and freshman that ended up on the score sheet.

Junior mid-fielder Kyle Scherba and freshman forward Joseph Bolous each found the back of the net as SHP blanked The King’s Academy School-Sunnyvale 2-0 on a brisk Wednesday afternoon in Atherton.

Seniors Cameron Bell, Tyler Moragne, Miguel Pissani, Gaa Reid (senior captain), Alfonso Avila, Victor Ojeda, Nick Hutter (senior captain), Riley Fallon, Ned Walecha, Kevin Chou, Matt Walter and goalkeeper Greg Hook were honored before the WBAL matchup.

“It was awesome to win this one at home and see Scherba get his first real goal of the season,” Hutter said. “Its kind of a running joke with the team getting on Scherba that hes only scored off pk’s this year.”

Although the home game was the final on the schedule for the Gators, there is still a chance for SHP to host a Central Coast Section playoff game in two weeks depending on how the playoff seeding turns out.

The win was the 13^th straight for the Gators, their last defeat came way back on Dec. 9 against Aragon High-San Mateo.

Ripping off 13 straight wins, all in league play, SHP wrapped up the league title and will have a week off while the second through fifth place finishers duke it out in the WBAL league tournament next week.

A senior-heavy starting lineup opened the game for SHP, playing the first 23 minutes of the first half.

At the 23-minute mark, several subs came in for the Gators, including Scherba.

“It was cool to see the seniors get a lot of playing time,” SHP head coach Matt Dodge said. “In general, it was tough for us to get into a flow today.”

Both sides sparred in the mid-field for the majority of the first half, with a few chances that slipped away.

Solid defense from TKA senior Isaiah Pekary, junior Brian Vergara and sophomore Amir Pappu kept things all even at 0-0 after 35 minutes of play.

“We wanted to go toe-to-toe in the middle with their mid’s,” TKA head coach Shannon Pekary said. “I thought we did a good job of that in the first half. We just got a little tired in the second half and they were able to take advantage.”

Coach Dodge stirred the pot at the half, challenging his team to a bet.

“I bet them that they couldn’t score in the first 10 ten minutes of the half,” Dodge said. “They proved me wrong. These guys like scoring. I was very happy on how they responded to the challenge.”

Three minutes in, Scherba found some space in the middle, then fired off a left-footed strike into the top right corner of the net.

The Gators continued to pressure after the first tally and put another ball into the net nine minutes later.

Off a hard rush into the middle, chaos ensued in front of the TKA net. A Gators forward and the Knights keeper collided, leaving a wide open net for Bolous to shoot and score on.

SHP led 2-0 47 minutes in and never looked back.

TKA fell to 4-5-3 in league with the loss. The Knights host Eastside Prep on Friday and Pinewood next Tuesday.

“We probably need to win both to get into the WBAL tourney,” Pekary said. “We got in as the No. 5 seed last year and ended up winning the whole thing.”

The winner of the WBAL tournament receives an automatic bid to the CCS playoffs.

SHP caps off their season Friday afternoon at Harker. The Gators are now 15-3-0 overall and 13-0 in league.