The Aliso Niguel boys soccer team ended the season 4th in the South Coast League. Although it is not where the team wanted to be, they overall had a great season finishing with a record of 7-6-3. Their last few games all unfortunately ended up in losses going against San Clemente and San Juan Hills High School.
These last games ended in losses: 4-1 against San Clemente and 1-0 against San Juan Hills. Both of these losses counted towards their season record. The Wolverines also had a playoff tie-breaker game on Feb. 4 at El Toro High School, where they faced off against San Juan Hills for a Division I CIF spot.
Aliso Niguel ended up losing 1-0, which means they can not compete for CIF at the Division I level so this means they have a chance to compete for CIF but in the Division II level.
Although the coaches and players knew that this was not the greatest finish for the team,they should still be proud of what they have accomplished. The Wolverines still overall performed better throughout the course of the game, but one mistake unfortunately cost them the game.
Varsity Striker Noe Sanchez (12) says, “It was a rough game, but the team knows that we were overall the better team, just one unlucky penalty was all it needed for them to score and just play defense the rest of the game.”
Although the team was not able to get the CIF spot for Division I, they will still be training and calling more players up due to many injuries within the team and still have very intense training and practice to make sure they have a long run during CIF.
Since the soccer team has been competing at the Division I level for over four years, this is their first time in a while playing in Division II, which means they will be one of the better teams competing; they might be high favorites to win the whole thing.
An honorable game from Aliso Niguel is their game against El Toro, where they ended up winning 1-0 against the 21st best team in California and the 102nd team in the nation. The Aliso Niguel boys soccer team played a great game, which ended up paying off with a goal by Jackson Kaufman (9) to give Aliso the win against the winner of the South Coast League and one of the best teams in California.
Varsity Defender Jan Flores (12) comments, “We probably played our best; we have played all season, but it ended up paying off in a win against the best team in our league, and one of the best teams in California, and it was just a great game for us.”
The team may not have had the best season they had expected, but they will overall have a great postseason run in CIF. Hopefully they will end up in the team winning the whole thing to finish off a great 2025-26 year and overall a great season for all seniors.
