Mountain View’s season domination continued Tuesday in a 3-0 win over the Eagles to earn a season sweep over its rivals.
After a sloppy first half where Los Altos pinned Mountain View in its 18-yard box and kept possession throughout, the Spartans responded in the second with more high-energy pressing to close down space against the Eagles, according to Mountain View striker Liam Barrett.
“I feel like they honestly had a better first half than us,” Barrett said. “We were talking at halftime and saying whoever wants this game more is going to win it, and I feel like our team really stepped up. We really changed the energy in the second half, which produced goals.”
Although the Spartans scored first thanks to a Los Altos own goal with three minutes left in the first half, it wasn’t until the second half that Mountain View took control after reducing sloppy play. The Spartans extended the lead with 18 minutes left when midfielder Sola Nishimura whipped in a cross from the left side to Barrett, who controlled the ball and fired it past the goalkeeper with one touch. Barrett and Nishimura have played on varsity for three years and know each other’s games, with Barrett always keeping his eyes on finding open space to exploit and score.
“It’s all about simplicity and being in the right spot at the right time,” Barrett said of his goal. “Once the ball came to me, I took a deep breath and moved my foot a little bit, and that’s all you had to do at that point; the ball’s there, the opportunities there; you just have to finish.”
Mountain View head coach Jim McGuirk noted that Barrett, a team captain and a future Division I baseball player, has been a leader on the field and knows how to find the right space to be in positions to score. McGuirk thought the team did well in the first 10 minutes of the first half but got lucky to get the goal, with the second half much crisper thanks to the work of midfielders Nishimura, Aidan Wong and Niko Dekovic, who stopped the Los Altos midfield from playing and making easy passes.
“Los Altos was a tad better than us in the first half, and then we got the goal against the run of play, but our guys just stick with it,” McGuirk said. “We changed up a little bit defensively at halftime because I think their midfield was giving us some trouble the first half.”
Mountain View defender Torben Kroeger scored a header from a corner to make it 3-0 with 11 minutes left to ensure a regular season sweep for the Spartans over Los Altos. The two teams split the season series last year.
“It’s always been a big rivalry between our teams, and we got the job done, so I’m happy about that,” Barrett said.
While the SCVAL De Anza Division is typically close at the top of the table, Mountain View (16-1) has swept away the competition this year. The team is 9-0 in league play following the win over Los Altos and a 4-2 win over Santa Clara Thursday, with the only loss coming in a December non league game against Carlmont. McGuirk noted there isn’t a huge gap between the Spartans and the other teams in skill, but the team plays great defense and finds ways to win. The team won the Central Coast Section Open Division last year but finished second in the De Anza Division behind Palo Alto.
“We have never had a season like this where we had this start,” McGuirk said.
