The West Coast Terremoto ‘13 (U10 Boys) won the NorCal Premier State Cup Championship (B2) at River Island, winning in the final by a 5-2 score, going undefeated in its nine (9) State Cup games.  The brand new team had improved well over its seasonal play, finishing 3rd in the Dublin Shamrock tournament, then 2nd in the Brentwood BooFest, before finishing with the coveted State Cup Championship.  The team then finished its season with two more league victories, again defeating a Mustang team, and a California Magic team.

Fresh from that strong showing, the team has opened NorCal Spring League play with another victory, last Saturday beating East Bay United (Bay Oaks) by a score of 7-1. 

About eight (8) minutes in, after a good number of long runs and crosses down the left sideline, speedy winger Brayden Aycock again leveled a nice cross to playmaker Tony Mendoza, who shielded the ball, turned and delivered a nice pass across the goal to tricky midfielder Joaquin Retuyan.  Realizing the goalkeeper had moved with the pass from Mendoza, Joaquin leveled a perfect nice shot from his right, shooting back across the goal into the left side, for a 1-0 first half lead. 

Great goalkeeping by Collin Perry allowed the team to keep the door shut on the Easy Bay attack, with many good saves and great ball distribution.

The second half featured two (2) hat tricks, one each from forwards Julian Marron, and Ojan Wahidi.

First, Grayson Ryan placed an 18-yard pass down perfectly to forward Ojan Wahidi, who grabbed the ball near the goal line and fired a shot into the far corner of the East Bay goal for a 2-0 lead.  

Then, five minutes later, starting from a goal kick by Luke Achziger outside to Gavin Su, Gavin passed nicely outside down the wing to the speedy Julian Marron, who had called for the ball placing himself nicely out on the wing.  Julian “’megged” a guy, and juked defenders before delivering a nice right-footed cross to Ojan, who had placed himself nicely into an open position Julian was able well to see.  Ojan calmly delivered a beautiful arcing shot over the goalkeeper’s head and into the opposite corner with his left foot, for another Ojan goal/with Marron assist and now a 3-0 score.  The goal had come all the way from its own goal kick, touching four (4) Terremoto players before the score, untouched by the opposing team.

Directly on the ensuing kickoff, Ojan intercepted an East Bay pass, Gavin Su collected it, and passed ahead nicely outside.  Grayson Ryan stole the ball, and again working nicely with Ojan, passed up to him, who turned up the sideline – and returned the favor to Julian, hitting the ball across for a perfect pass to Julian who had positioned himself perfectly.  Sure enough, Julian hit a strong one-touched left-footed shot again into the upper corner of the goal, for another Marron goal with Ojan assist, and now a 4-0 score. 

In its aggressive play, Terremoto had scored two goals in less than a minute with goals that mirrored each other, one from the right, and one from the left.

With the solid aggressive defense of Luke Achziger, Gavin Su, Grayson Ryan and Wyatt Avila thwarting opposing attack after opposing attack, and Joaquin Retuyan able to dribble nicely around to find the attackers with some nice passing, the Terremoto team had jumped out to an insurmountable lead. 

An example of that tough defense creating the offense was the very next goal:  Grayson Ryan relentlessly tackled and chased down two attackers, stripped the ball, and passed to Ojan.  Ojan quickly found Julian again, who streaked down toward the opposing goal, swerving in and out, avoiding defenders in his path, before delivering a deadly right-footed shot past the outstretched goalkeeper arms.  5-0 Terremoto.  Midfielder Nick Brown came in despite nursing a stomach ailment and had good ball distribution, narrowly missing on a few shots at goal.

A minute later, Ojan Wahidi stripped the defender from a goal kick, and shot a low boomer into the corner, again with his left foot, causing the coach to smile broadly, and exclaim, “Wow, we have stressed all year the necessity of using both feet, always working on it, demanding it, and I’m thinking now we might not be able to do those ‘Weak foot only!’ scrimmages anymore!”  It was 6-0, Terremoto, on a nice bunch of “weak foot” goals.

The final goal for Terremoto came from Julian Marron intercepting a goal kick pass that had been pressured by Tony Mendoza, Julian again placing another well-timed shot into the corner of the goal, for a 7-0 Terremoto lead in the 7-1 final victory. 

The next game for Terremoto is away at the Alameda Soccer Club, before a game the next day with Dublin Premier.

An interesting news note, the 2013 age group has added a number of new players for the Spring. The club now has the additional Spring team known as the Quakes ’13, practicing mostly at Legacy.  The Quakes will play their first league game away at Danville on March 26, against the Mustang SC.  The Quakes will then play at the San Ramon NorCal Play Date, April 2.

“We can’t help but be greatly excited about these teams, the club and these opportunities for the players,” the coaching staff confided.  “The kids are great, it’s all positive, and we’re having a blast!” they said.