A surprise team has surfaced at the top of 6A Metro League boys soccer.
Aloha, which hasn’t had a winning record in 10 years and hasn’t won a league title since 1989, put the final touch on the outright Metro championship Thursday night with a 0-0 tie at Beaverton.
The Warriors (7-3-4), who made a stirring quarterfinal playoff run last year, are hitting their stride as they head toward the postseason. After losing three of four matches to start the year, they have gone 6-0-4, including 4-0-2 in the Metro.
“I believe it’s all psychological,” second-year coach Enrique Abad said. “We worked so hard to try to put it all together, to be as a family. They’re very skillful as well, but at some point we clicked.
“We just respect each other, and we have a blast. And they believe in themselves, believe in their abilities. This team is special.”
A loss Thursday would have put the Warriors in a three-way tie for first place with Jesuit (8-3-3, 4-1-1) and Beaverton (7-4-3, 3-1-1), but they managed a draw.
Aloha’s biggest win of the season came Oct. 4, when the Warriors went on the road to beat perennial league power Jesuit 2-1 on goals by senior Lazar Djurdjevic and junior Diego Trejo. The Crusaders had beaten Aloha in every meeting since a 0-0 tie in 2008, including a 2-1 win last year on a much-disputed penalty kick.
“Beating them this year, that was one of our first goals, to get Jesuit,” said Abad,
The Warriors went 5-7-2 in the regular season in 2017, finishing 29th in the OSAA power rankings, but reached the final eight with 3-2 road wins over McMinnville and Tigard.
“We were just ready. We had confidence,” Abad said.
In the quarterfinals, Aloha led South Eugene 2-0 at halftime but lost three defenders to injury and fell 3-2, giving up the game-winning goal in the last five minutes.
The Warriors brought back six starters from that team but struggled early in the season as three starters – junior defender Genaro Espitia, senior defender Nikola Djurdjevic and senior forward Jose Vega -- were out with injuries.
“After we had the three guys come back, the team started playing much better,” Abad said.
Aloha has a strong senior nucleus with the Djurdjevic twins, midfielder Ohm Harape and forwards Oscar Cruz Solis and Vega. Harape and Vega have stepped up to lead the team in scoring with six goals apiece, compensating for the graduation of standout striker Ismael Vara.
The Warriors are 15th in the OSAA power rankings.
