On its way to becoming the Central Section Champion, The Granite Hills boys soccer team also became the Central Section Champion of Frequent Bus Miles as well, if you will.
The Grizzlies completed a long journey of three straight road games, culminating with a 2-0 win at No. 3 seed Nipomo in San Luis Obispo County on Wednesday night to win the Central Section Division V Championship.
Granite Hills also advanced to the State Regional Playoffs with the first round scheduled to be played at 5 p.m. Tuesday. Seedings for the state playoffs will be announced on Sunday.
After a 2-1 win at home against Chavez, the No. 8 seed Grizzlies then traveled all the way to No. 1 seed Dos Palos where they pulled off the 2-1 upset in the quarterfinals. They then had to go all the way to Tranquillity for the semifinals where they won 2-1 to advance to the finals.
So with each road win Granite Hills coach Pedro Gonzalez gained more confidence in his team. “You know what I am thinking really we're going to take this,” said Gonzalez about the section title.
But even when his team took a 2-0 lead with about 10 minutes left against Nipomo Gonzalez wasn't ready to celebrate. “We felt a little safer when we scored the second goal,” he said.
But Gonzalez said Nipomo had an outstanding striker so no lead was safe. But led by the play of goalie Fransue Lopez and defenders Juan Rocco Orepeza, Hector Gonzalez and Jonathan Alvarado, the Grizzles were able to shut out Nipomo. Coach Gonzalez said Lopez had an outstanding game as was able to make the save on a number of 50-50 shots.
After a scoreless first half Granite Hills finally broke through with 20 minutes left when Fabian Ruiz scored on a shot from about 28 yards. “Beautiful,” said coach Gonzalez about Ruiz's shot. “Just to the right side of the goalie into the corner.”
Then with about 10 minutes left Carlos Zavala made an outstanding run after making a steal and then beat a couple of defenders to send a shot across the goal and into the net. “He's a really strong player,” said coach Gonzalez about Zavala.
Coach Gonzalez said midfielder William Ruiz also played well. “The whole team played well, every single play,” he said.
About his team's road run in the section playoffs coach Gonzalez said, “I told the guys we don't have home advantage but if we play to ourselves we can play anywhere.”
So about making a run at the state playoffs the coach said, “I think we have a shot. The kids are excited.
“We'll see what happens. It doesn't really matter if we're playing home or away. We have a good chance.”