University’s soccer team celebrates after winning the CIF State Division IV championship Friday. (Photos courtesy University soccer).
A long bus trip home Friday from Sacramento for the University High School boys soccer team was a happy one.
The Trojans came back with their second championship trophy of the season, this time after winning the CIF State Division IV crown with a 3-2 victory over Del Mar in the final Friday at Natomas High School.
It capped a memorable post season run for the top-seeded Trojans, who also won the CIF State So Cal Regional championship and CIF Southern Section Division 4 crown. University was also top-seeded in the section playoffs.
On Friday, University’s goals were scored by Cole Barkett, Jake Rabold and Brendan Leung with assists by Jake Rabold, Kasra Ghoddousi and Jerry Le, according to University Coach Martin Wallwork.
Goalkeeper Lucca Clouthier had five saves and notched his 17th win of the season. He only gave up five goals in the nine total playoff games. In the post-season, Clouthier had six shutouts and 10 on the year, the coach said.
It was the first year that a CIF state soccer championship has been held.
“This year’s CIF title was only the second in school history both boys and girls,” Wallwork said. “I was head coach for the first one also back in 2018. That year we made it to the regional semi-final. Obviously it was great to top that achievement and go one better making it to the regional final and figured we may as well make more history in winning that to become the school’s first soccer regional champions.
“This year was the inaugural state championships for soccer in CIF history so we became the first ever state champions. It was just an incredible, emotional, passionate, thrilling run through playoffs where we got rolling and matured as a group, refusing to lose with a determination to go all the way.”
In the CIF state tournament, University (19-5-1) defeated Animo Leadership 4-2, Chatsworth 5-1 and Granite Hills (by forfeit) before defeating No.3 seeded Del Mar (17-7-3).
A number of players stood out for the Trojans during the season.
“Our captains Kasra, Rayan, Jake and Pavlos have been real leaders and provided the quality and experience that drove this team along with senior goalkeeper Lucca of course,” the coach said.”And then to get our big man back at the start of cif Cole Barkett, who has accepted a D1 scholarship to UCLA for volleyball, was massive boost for us and he capped off his soccer career with the first goal in the state final.
“The win was extra special for me personally as after reaching a milestone of 250 games as head coach at Uni in the quarterfinal of CIF, the state final victory saw me reach 150 win: 256 games 150 wins. It’s my 12th season in charge which I consider myself extremely fortunate to be in this position. Hopefully there’s a couple years or so left in me yet.”
University won won the CIF Southern Section Division 4 final defeating Granite Hills 3-0 on Saturday, Feb. 28 at University.
UNI ROSTER
Players: Luca Clouthier, Jayvn Figueroa, Jake Rabold, Kasra Ghoddousi, Shalin Reddy, Chase Sletten, Miguel Campos, Rayan Heyati, Brendan Leung, Pavlos Mikhael, Teddy Kiem, Hector Jessen, Bradley Son, Hafez Malakahmad, Faisal Majali, Patrick Hertel, Tyler Blake, Jason Lim, Andrei Constantinescu, Ishan Vannadil, Cayden Mu, Jerry Le, Arya Tayaranibeegham and Cole Barkett.
Coaches: Head Coach Martin Wallwork. Assistants: Cole Flipps, Zach Young, Connor Fitzgerald, Marley Aragaon, Isaac Guerrero and Jessica Barkett (statistician).
For full view click on the photo:
—Tim Burt, OC Sports Zone; timburt@ocsportszone.com
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