Fall Preview: NVC men’s soccer team looks to repeat as Bay Valley Conference champions in 2018
By Kyle Foster, photo courtesy of Abby Perez
Twitter: @NapaKyle @NapaSportsNews
Last season was a magical one for the Napa Valley College men’s soccer team.
It was also Rogelio Ochoa’s first year coaching at NVC, and he led the Storm to a record of 12-7 overall with a impressive 8-2 mark in the Bay Valley Conference. Napa Valley ultimately lost 7-0 in the first round of the California Community College Athletic Association playoffs to Hartnell of Salinas.
However, it’s a new season and NVC will look to win back-to-back BVC titles.
In their way to repeating is Contra Costa-San Pablo, who finished second to the Storm last fall. Other teams that could pose a threat is Mendocino-Ukiah, Yuba-Marysville, and Marin-Kentfield will be some of the toughest games when conference play starts.
“Every game, every opponent has its challenges,” Ochoa said of the Bay Valley Conference in 2018. “Contra Costa is the two-time champ and then we played them in the final last year; we played them in the final last year to beat them, so they’re going to be very strong, but then you go to Marin their field’s always really hard to play (on); Mendocino it’s a tough field to play (on); Yuba always has some good, physical players, so I mean everywhere we go. It’s a new team, but it’s also a new year, so we don’t know who picked up a couple good players, so we have to be as ready as we possibly can.”
Napa will open Bay Valley Conference play on September 28th when they host Contra Costa.
The Storm (0-2) will have a very tough non league schedule to prepare them for BVC play. Napa Valley lost 1-0 to the Folsom Lake College on August 28th and lost 2-1 to City College of San Francisco on Friday. On September 7th and 8th they’ll take a trip to Lake Tahoe to play Lake Tahoe Community College and Allan Hancock-Santa Maria. Other notable opponents include Hartnell and Santa Rosa. To view the complete schedule go here.
“I believe our non conference schedule is difficult,” Ochoa explained of the tough opponents they’ll face. “Everyone but one made playoffs last year and I did that purposely just to prepare the boys for BVC and also for playoffs.”
Before the season even began Napa Valley faced Pacific Union College of Angwin a scrimmage on August 24th.
“First of all it’s great to play with people locally,” Ochoa said of the PUC scrimmage. “It helps both programs whatever the result is, it’s just to see more where we’re performing and just tweak a couple things here or there. That’s what the scrimmage is for, so I think it helps just not us, but also both teams no matter what the result is.”
NVC has five returning sophomores this season. They are: Danny Gonzalez, Julian Smith, Dominic Debenedetti, Juan Calderon, and David Jiminez.
New to the team this year is Oscar Ochoa, Jonathan Perez, Jesus Meza, Jonathan Solana, Alex Cendejas, Luis Flores, Adam Tejada, Daniel Avila, George Binda, Nicolas Vensetea, Eduardo Hernandez, Jonathan Arcinega, Issac Hernandez, Moises Salinas, Juan Bejerano, Gustavo Moreira, Greg Soria, and Javier Rodriguez.
Perez and Salinas were a part of Napa High’s 2015 Monticello Empire League championship team, so it’s nice for Ochoa to have them on the team this year.
“It’s just great to see guys that are passionate about the game,” Ochoa said of the additions of Perez and Salinas. “And right away as soon as they step on the field they understand what it takes to (have) the commitment level off the field, but they have a high soccer IQ, which definitely helps not just the program, but just their own teammates that’s around them.”
Of the 24 players on Napa’s roster 16 of them come from Napa County high schools. For the full roster go here.
Ochoa will still be assisted by the same coaches as last season, which are Rafael Ayala and Raul Gallegos.
“It’s awesome, I think we’re all excited of what we did last year and we want to repeat and just try to get better, so it’s always nice to share these moments with the same coaching staff and if we can do this for a long time, but it definitely helps when they know what to expect, we know what to expect, so we’re in it together,” Ochoa said of his coaches.
