The RCHS varsity boys soccer team is off to a great start with a 3-1 record during the pre-season. The league games are set to begin on January 6, 2023. 

“We started off really strong but we got a little too confident in our last game,” head coach Edgar Rodriguez said. “Alta Loma was a team we should’ve beat but we just made a couple mistakes and ended up losing that game.”

Rodriguez helps with the drills and tactics for the games. Rodriguez also substitutes the players out for which people go in and out the field. 

“I look forward to what we have,” Rodriguez said. “We finally built an actual team, a team that plays together and actually looks out for each other.”

On Wednesday, Dec. 7, the Cougars defeated Ganesha High School 1-0. The game was tied with a 0-0 score until the very end when senior Kieon Donato scored the winning goal. 

“I think we have a good chance at playing in the league and going forward with that,” senior and center defense mid Victor Garcia said. “This is my first year on varsity so I haven’t been playing with other kids who are at a higher level than where I was before… [but my] skills have gotten better.” 

Starting off on their league season boys varsity won against Los Osos 2-0 on January 6 and an intense away game at Etiwanda winning 2-0 on January 11 of 2023. Later on, in a game against Chino Hills the boys lost 2-0 on January 14.

This changed their overall score on January 14 to 9-2-4 with a .073% rate of winning their games. During the beginning of their league season the boys varsity already have 2 wins and 1 loss. 

“We went to Etiwanda and we knew it was going to be a hard game cause some guys on the team are pretty good,” during the away game against Etiwanda on January 11, senior and center defense mid Victor Garcia said. “We scored a couple goals from the other team’s mistakes and which made them pretty mad and they kept fouling our players which got things pretty intense but we prevailed and won 2-0-1.”

For both seasons thus far the boys have an impeccable performance during home games with a streak of 6-1-1 updated on January 18 from a home game against Damien in which the varsity boys lost 2-1. Though, in away games their streak of wins, draws, and losses lead toward 3-3-3. 

Then, on January 20 the boys varsity won against Upland 3-2 in a home game. On January 23 boys varsity lost against Los Osos 4-1 in an away game and Etiwanda where they lost 3-0 on January 25. Therefore, the scores were updated to 7-2-1 for home games and 6-1 for away games.

“I like how competitive league is because of all of the rivalries like Osos or Etiwanda,” senior and defender Gianni Wang said. “I feel like we are going to improve through league because it’s some of the toughest games we have in our season.”