Quartz Hill Eyes Unbeaten Season

Three key players from the Quartz Hill boys’ soccer team that shared the Southern Section Division I championship last season are on scholarship at universities.

The team’s schedule has been beefed up and the Rebels will no longer benefit from opponents underestimating them as they might have during their breakthrough season.

Yet Andre Matalon, Quartz Hill’s fourth-year coach, sees no reason why the Rebels can’t post their second consecutive unbeaten season and win their first mythical national championship during the 2002-03 campaign.

And he’s not afraid to say it.

“It’s one of our goals,” Matalon said about being the top-ranked team in the nation at the end of the winter season. “We try and win every game, so why not go into the season thinking we can win every game?

“I’m not saying we’re going to do it, but I don’t think we shouldn’t make it one of our goals with the talent we have on this team.”

Senior Taylor Sheldrick, one of six returning starters from last season’s squad that was 28-0-2 and eighth in Student Sports magazine’s final national rankings, says Matalon’s national title talk has put a “little extra pressure” on the team. But he’s not too concerned about it.

“All the teams are going to be out for us anyway,” he said. “We’re just going to have to work twice as hard.”

Quartz Hill, which tied Lawndale Leuzinger, 0-0, in the Division I title game last season, is ranked third behind Irvine Woodbridge and defending national champion San Jose Bellarmine Prep in the national preseason rankings.

Midfielder David Martin, goalkeeper Ian McClung and forward Nick Angelillo are now at the University of San Francisco, Cal State Northridge and Cal State Bakersfield, respectively. But Quartz Hill has talented returning starters in midfielders Kiel McClung, Ian’s brother, and Sheldrick and Kerry Ferguson, forward El Shaddai Bent, and defenders Zack Bursley and Randall Davis.

“We’re going to have a team with a lot of speed and skill,” Matalon said. “We’re going to have a lot of offense.”

McClung was selected as the Division I offensive player of the year after scoring 34 goals last season. He has signed with UCLA and returned Tuesday from a training camp in Florida for the national under-20 team. But Matalon says there’s much more to Quartz Hill than McClung.

“It’s a good team,” he said. “This is a good area for soccer.”

Quartz Hill outscored its opponents by a staggering 129-20 margin last season, but a tougher schedule will no doubt reduce that margin this season.

Quartz Hill again will play in the Lancaster tournament, which starts Friday, but the Simi Valley Royal tournament is no longer on its schedule.

Instead, the Rebels will play in the Student Sports tournament in Tampa, Fla., from Dec. 20-23 and in the Huntington Beach Marina tournament from Dec. 26-28.

The Student Sports tournament will feature several of the top teams from California, Texas and Florida.

The Marina tournament usually includes several high-quality Southern Section teams.

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Santa Margarita and Santa Ana Mater Dei have combined to win or share seven Southern Section titles at the Division II or III level in the last six seasons. But they have moved up to Division I because of a change in the playoff format.

A school’s enrollment determined its playoff division in recent years. This meant that teams from the same league, like Serra League members Santa Margarita and Mater Dei, might play in different divisions in the playoffs.

This year, the strength of the league in which a team plays will determine its playoff division. And because the five-team Serra League is regarded as strong in boys’ soccer, its top three finishers will automatically qualify for the Division I playoffs.

“I don’t have a problem playing at the Division I level,” said Coach Curt Bauer of Santa Margarita.

“But I’m not sure it’s fair for a smaller school like [Serra League member] Bishop Montgomery. I don’t want it to sound like I’m criticizing their program or their players, but I just don’t think they have the numbers to compete at the Division I level on a regular basis.”