Boys Soccer Wins CIF and Goes to State Playoffs

Juan Moreno / Contributor

Samo boys’ soccer team come together after winning CIF Division I playoffs at Fontana high school on Saturday, Feb. 28.

Samo boys soccer finished the regular season with a strong 19-3-3 record and a 8-1 record in the Ocean League. This culminated in the team winning the Division I CIF playoffs. Coach Chris Sandoval, head coach of four years touched on the journey the team took to achieve this milestone.

“At the beginning of the season during non league games we understood that we were going to play some tough opponents.” Sandoval said. “We needed to discover who we are and discover our team identity. We stuck to it and got some big results and that has led us to where we are today.”

On Feb. 11, Samo played in the first round of the playoffs against Montclair. This game was extremely tense, due to the game being sudden death CIF style bracket play.

Colton Miller (’28), the starting varsity goalkeeper described the beginning of the first half.

“The opening part of the first half was a little rocky. I think we had playoff jitters and it just took us a moment to get set into the game, especially me. This was my first time being in the playoffs,” Miller said.

Samo played with a lot of intensity throughout the second part of the second half with Samo scoring two goals. Matteo Castagna (’26) and Joaquin Castro (’27) both scored. An increase in physicality ultimately resulted in Montclair scoring a goal with 10 minutes remaining. The game remained tied as the second half ended bringing the game to two golden goal overtime periods. Neither team scored in either period which transitioned the game into penalty kicks.

The five Samo players who took penalties were: Castagna, Castro, Damien Hashim (’27), Deacon Miller (’26) and Will Komlos (’26). Samo won 4-3 in penalties. Miller saved one penalty kick, resulting in Samo being able to move on to the next round.

“It was an amazing feeling to win, knowing it was a close game, and I feel as though we definitely deserved to win. We found a way, we dug through and we got the result,” Miller said

Samo’s next game was the round of 16 vs. Roosevelt High School on Feb. 13.

The first half of the game was extremely close, with both teams being tied at half with a score of 1-1 on a goal by Komlos. In the second half Castro scored two goals to put Samo up 3-1. Samo closed out the game for a victory.

One aspect that Sandoval has attributed to the team’s immense success this year has been the senior’s class motivation to keep advancing and being able to keep playing together as a team.

“The entire senior class really stepped up. They just wanted to make sure that their senior year ended up on a good note,” Sandoval said.

The quarterfinals of CIF was on Feb. 17 against Servite, the team ranked 10 in California. Despite these odds, Samo won 1-0 in a tight and physical game, to advance to the semifinals.

“Servite was one of the top teams in the division, we predicted that whoever won between us and Servite would go on to win the whole thing. We knew it was going to be a tough opponent, and the boys just came out and did their thing and won the game,” Sandoval said.

Winning against Servite allowed Samo to qualify for State playoffs for the second year in a row. This game has given the team a lot of confidence heading into CIF semi finals against Canyon High School on Feb. 21.

“The boys are very prepared. The model from day one was being more prepared than any other team that we would be facing. Our training sessions are harder than the games, so we are going into this game extremely confident,” Sandoval said.

This preparation paid off, with Samo winning against Canyon high school, 2-0.

The final of CIF div 1 playoffs was on Feb. 28 against Fontana high school.

Nathan Shlepp (’26) scored the first goal in the 30th minute. With five minutes left in the first half, Samo got another goal on a volley by Castro to put the team up 2-0 heading into halftime. Fontana scored to cut the deficit in half, but Samo responded with a goal of their own by forward Adrien Gonzalez (’26). This put the game out of reach, and Samo won 4-1. This was Samo’s third championship and is their best season in school history.

Their season hasn’t ended, as they have clinched state playoffs for the second season in a row with a game against Mater Dei on Mar. 3.