Manda, Gerard Make Impact

The Fountain Valley boys’ soccer team continued to get help from unexpected places Wednesday when junior Jonathan Yanez came off the bench to score his first two goals this season in a 2-0 upset victory over second-ranked Anaheim Esperanza in a Sunset League opener.

Before that, seniors Towa Manda and Kevin Gerard had helped the Barons (12-1-1) to a surprising No. 4 position in the The Times’ Southland rankings with their dynamic play at the forward positions in their first season of high school soccer.

“They’ve definitely made us a stronger team,” Coach Jason Smith said. “Defensively, I knew we were going to be a pretty good team.... But [Manda and Gerard] have given us a dimension up front that we didn’t have last year. Kevin is fast and strong and can cover an enormous amount of ground. Towa has a lot of speed and he’s very good with the ball. He can beat players off the dribble and that’s something we didn’t have last year.”

Each has taken a circuitous path to their places on the Barons’ soccer team.

The 5-foot-6, 145-pound Manda played soccer and several other sports while being reared by his maternal grandparents in Malawi, in southern Africa.

He and his older brother Muluwa moved to Fountain Valley in the summer of 1999 to rejoin their mother, who had come to the United States in the early 1990s in search of education and employment opportunities.

Although Muluwa was a starting midfielder for the Fountain Valley soccer team during the 2000-01 and 2001-02 seasons, Towa played basketball at the freshman and junior varsity levels during his first three years of high school because many of his friends played that sport.

“My grandparents had always wanted me to play soccer at the high school level,” Manda said when asked why he decided to try out for the soccer team this season.

“They were very supportive of me playing basketball, but they always thought I could take it to another level in soccer.”

Manda has scored seven goals this season after playing for the Wolfpack under-17 premier club team in 2002 and the under-19 team last year.

Gerard, 6-1 and 165 pounds, was an all-Orange County first-team selection at defensive back during the recently completed football season. He played soccer growing up but dropped the sport when he began playing football during his freshman year.

A good all-around athlete, he played lower-level basketball with Manda during his first two years of high school and has competed in the high jump, long jump and 400-meter relay during the last two track seasons.

Yet, soccer remained on the back burner until several members of this year’s team -- who played with Gerard when he was younger -- convinced him to come out.

He scored a goal -- off an assist from Manda -- on his first shot in his first game and has scored four more since.

“It all came as a surprise,” Gerard said when asked about his success. “I thought it was going to take a while for me to get used to playing soccer again. I still have a lot to learn, but it’s come back much quicker than I thought it would.”