The Rio Hondo League campaign has been unkind to the San Marino High boys’ soccer team the last couple of seasons, with unfavorable results leaving the Titans with no points in the league standings.
This season had been more of the same, but the Titans had three more chances to change the script this campaign, starting on the road at Blair in Pasadena.
At the host Vikings’ choppy grass field, San Marino established a halftime lead before falling behind, only to salvage a tie at 2-2 on Jan. 26 for a result and the Titans’ first league point in a full season since January 2020.
“I keep telling my guys to stick with the process and trust the process and eventually fruit will come from it,” said associate head coach Vincenzo Costagliola, who manned the sidelines in the absence of head coach Jayro Martinez. “As you can tell, today we got a result. we could have won the game, but other than that, just to keep these guys motivated it is nice for them.”
The San Marino goals were sandwiched between a pair of Blair goals that came in close succession in the opening minutes of the second half.
Titans junior Toby Pedroza netted twice for San Marino, with both goals coming off of corner kicks.
“It was a good game. I feel like we played well,” Pedroza said. “It didn’t help that the field was not very good, but I think it was one of our better games. We played well as a unit. We were able to move the ball around and connect at the top and we were able to finish, too.”
In the 31st minute, Titan Kainen Desai took a corner kick and played it short, only to get the ball passed right back to him. The freshman then sent a booming cross into the mixer of bodies in front of the goal. Pedroza rose up to meet the ball and headed it in for the only goal of the first 40 minutes.
“Of course we have Kainen, the freshman, who always says [for me] to get to the back post because he is always able to put the ball there,” Pedroza said. “It was a nice little pass back, [he] got it up. The keeper missed it and I saw the opportunity and just headed it in.”
In the 46th minute, Blair, which had won the first meeting this season 4-2 at San Marino on Jan. 10, tied the game up. In the 48th minute, the hosts scored again to surge into the lead.
At the hour mark, San Marino found the equalizer, once again by way of a corner kick by Desai, with this one coming in low. Regardless, Pedroza was able to eventually get his foot on the ball and smashed a shot that went off several players on the way into the back of the net.
“[This corner kick] was not so good of a cross, but I saw the ball bobble and was just able to shoot it toward the goal,” Pedroza said of his second goal of the contest.
The Titan defense, anchored in the back by Jaeden Kusuma, held after that, and San Marino’s streak of losses in league was no more.
“We gave a lot of heart. We gave a lot of effort. We really tried our best,” Kusuma said. “Just [gave up] some unfortunate goals, just mistakes we need to fix, but our team is looking good.”
In a sign of the times, this was the first game the Titans had played on natural grass.
“They capitalized on the chances they had and we did as well, so it ended up as a tied result,” Costagliola said. “The field might have played a part because this is our first grass field that we played on; the rest have been turf. I’m not trying to make excuses. It was a tough battle.”
First published in the Feb. 1 issue of the San Marino Tribune
