Dean’s list: Soldan scores twice for Pacifica Christian in CIF debut
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Pacifica Christian’s boys’ soccer team had put forth a banner year, Tritons coach Johnny Marmelstein largely satisfied with each of his squad’s outings except for its last.
After just its second loss in the regular season finale, Pacifica Christian’s bounce-back performance was a big one.
Freshman forward Dean Soldan tallied twice for the host Tritons in a 3-1 win over Los Angeles Pilgrim on Wednesday in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 8 playoffs at Orange Coast College.
Pacifica Christian (13-2-1) picked up its first postseason victory in a main draw in program history. The win came after the Tritons took a 4-0 loss at Samueli Academy to close out San Joaquin League play, resulting in a shared league title between the sides.
Pilgrim (8-7) broke through first, finding the back of the net via a set piece in the 14th minute. Liam Rodriguez drove in the cross from a free kick, and Emiliano Ibarra took the volley in the air for the opening goal.
“The two losses came to Western Christian — that won the league last year — and Samueli Academy, who has been our nemesis for the past four years,” Marmelstein said. “We beat them my first year in the second game, and then we hadn’t beat them since, so to come back and beat them at our place, 3-0, that was a good game. It was a good result. …
“I don’t put too much into one or the other. I just knew that we’d come and play well today, and we did. It was a little bit sloppy in the beginning. … We knew they were going to be good in the air on set pieces and corners, and yet, we left the guy wide open.”
The Tritons’ response was swift and strong. Pacifica Christian equalized within a couple minutes, senior central midfielder Aiden Lynch playing a ball through to Soldan to send him in on a breakaway.
“It was pretty crazy,” Soldan said of competing in his first playoff contest. “I felt the adrenaline before, first big playoff game, but once I got out there, it just felt like a normal game. We played good as a team, so it was a good game.”
The go-ahead goal in the 24th minute was a thing of beauty. Levi Redman reaped the benefits on a tic-tac-toe connection that began with Colten Smith moving the ball up the right sideline. Smith played a centering feed to Jordan Jordanides, who left the ball at the back post for Redman to finish.
“Colten came off the bench and was brilliant,” Marmelstein said. “Levi did some really good things, too, so they gave us a lot of energy on the wings, and I knew that we had that in our back pocket. If we put those two guys in, they would cause a lot of trouble, and they did just that. I was really happy with that.”
Soldan scored again two minutes before halftime, Jacob Coleman assisting on his one-touch strike that beat Panthers goalkeeper Will Harker (four saves) and provided the final margin.
Pacifica Christian controlled field position the rest of the way, limiting Pilgrim to a handful of half chances in transition — those coming when the Tritons were tasked with reorganizing after sending players forward on their own set pieces.
Lynch said the Tritons have come a long way from when he first entered the program.
“Going from where we were, having to pull up players and pull players from random classes and stuff like that, to being able to move the ball on the field and scoring goals like you’d see in club games, that’s super cool,” Lynch said.
Pacifica Christian travels to take on Rosemead Don Bosco Tech (7-14-1) on Friday. The Tigers earned a 1-0 road win over Tarbut V’Torah, which was the fourth-place team from the San Joaquin League.
