Boys soccer move on, girls are eliminated in NCS playoffs

With both Sonoma Valley soccer teams hitting the road for the first round of North Coast Section playoffs, the boys moved on with a 2-1 win over Rancho Cotate (9-6-5) while the girls fell 6-2 against Cardinal Newman (9-5).

The boys will travel to San Rafael on Friday for a matchup against No. 3 San Rafael (13-5-2), who defeated No. 14 El Cerrito 3-2 on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Although San Rafael has had more success than the Dragons across the entire season, Sonoma Valley were much better against their common opponent, San Marin, than San Rafael.

The Dragons bested San Marin 5-1 in their first game of the season, on the back of strong performances from senior forwards Mikey Serbicki and Joey Fiorito, which bodes well for their quarterfinal game against San Rafael on Friday, Feb 18.

The girls struggled against Cardinal Newman, as their defense struggled to get stops against a precise Cardinal offensive scheme. Cardinal Newman got off to a hot start, scoring two goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, and ended the first half up 3-1.

Taking advantage of the open spaces in the defense, Cardinal Newman managed to advance the ball downfield fairly easily throughout the game and prevented Sonoma Valley from getting any momentum to generate offensive looks off of defensive recoveries.

The Dragons ended their season at 7-8-3, and will have to find a new crop of juniors and seniors to take the place of their graduating players from this season. One key returning player will be keeper Isabella Steinley, who was invaluable to the Dragons’ early success and will prove to be one of the leagues’ best keepers if she continues to develop in the offseason.