Adams boys’ soccer beats Kaiser to earn second win at Daily Pilot Cup
Forward Damien Perez spoke from among a cluster of his Costa Mesa Adams Elementary teammates.
As his teammates were being interviewed, he asked, “Are we on TV?” Those around him collapsed into laughter, claiming they were well on the way to becoming famous.
Perhaps one day, a member or two of the Adams roster will be seen on television, but on Friday, they were just as excited for newspaper coverage.
Joseth Zarate and Christian Sotomayor each scored a pair of goals to lead Adams to a 5-1 win over Costa Mesa Kaiser in a boys’ fifth- and sixth-grade Silver Division pool-play match at Jack R. Hammett Sports Complex in the Daily Pilot Cup youth soccer tournament.
Landen Guillen opened the scoring in the third minute, lacing a left-footed laser up and under the crossbar.
“I liked how I formed it up, and I kicked with the middle of my foot,” Guillen said. “How it went in was just satisfying for me.”
Adams played with the wind at its back in the first half, and was able to take advantage. A minute after the opening goal, Adams sent the ball toward the net again, and Zarate converted on the rebound. Zarate scored again in the 22nd minute, extending the Adams lead to 4-0, the halftime score.
Sotomayor’s second goal of the game came in the 39th minute. He displayed a combination of dribbling ability to keep the ball close and speed to blow by defenders on his way to the goal.
“I just moved the ball and just tried to go past all the defenders and just reach the goal as soon as possible,” Sotomayor said. “[I was] trying to not let the ball get away from me and keep it as close as possible.”
Adams had opened its lead to 5-0, the maximum margin of victory allowed before a team is assessed a one-point penalty for running up the score. Zarate said it was tough to play the game differently than they had been for most of the contest.
“It’s really hard because you have to [clear] it, [clear] it and [clear] it, and not score,” Zarate said. “It kind of gets boring for both teams. The other team, there isn’t even a goalie at one point.”
Adams beat Newport Beach Eastbluff 4-1 to open Pool A action on Tuesday. Zarate believes his team can win it all. “To get first place,” Zarate said of his team’s goal for the tournament.
Kaiser, indeed, resorted to sending second-half goalkeeper Sebastian Aviles out as an additional attacker once Adams established a five-goal lead. A handful of balls were played behind the Adams defense by midfielders Cameron Deisner and Blake Degen.
Kaiser got on the board in the 43rd minute, with Cooper Holland assisting on a goal by Briggs Mock.
“Sometimes, you have to lose, and even fail at times, so that you know that it’s not the end of the world,” Kaiser coach Jeff Deisner said of the lessons that can be learned from playing in the tournament. “Use that as motivation to win in the future.”
Kaiser has been known to put a lot of teams in the tournament. Deisner said that the school has 17 teams entered in the Daily Pilot Cup this year.
“It’s just kind of nice that the kids can still come out and make a few new friends, have fun and have a few laughs,” Deisner added. “That’s really what it is all about in the end is just coming out and having a good time and trying to have fun with the game of soccer.”
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