A successful warm-up for the Jesuit match-up

Davis High School’s JV men’s soccer team kept its eyes on the prize Thursday evening during its last league match against Monterey Trail. This time, the prize wasn’t winning against The Trail, but rather preparing and getting psyched for the team’s next challenge. Jesuit is back.

The two rivals are scheduled to face each other again on the field on Friday Oct 22, and this time JV coach Alex Park is hoping to “look sharp” and overcome Jesuit.

Thursday’s game against Monterey Trail, resulting in yet another Davis victory, 5-0 (8-0-0 for the DVC), was just a warm-up for Park’s crew.

“We have a big game coming up and playing well today will help prepare for it,” Park said prior to the game.

Starting defender Naji Dmeiri is out for the season due to a back injury, but sophomore Alex Raya has filled his position.

“Naji being gone is a noticeable change, but Alex is doing a great job filling in, and there have been absolutely no problems,” Park said.

Sophomore Connor Anderson, usually accompanying Dmeiri on the defensive end of the field, was brought up seeking his first goal of the season. Towards the end of the second half, Anderson trapped a pass from teammate Paul Hinton in box, and was able to find the back of the net.

Anderson’s goal rounded out the scoring for the sophomores on the JV squad leaving only freshman Hinton to score. “We created a couple chances for [Paul], but unfortunately he couldn’t find the back of the net. Overall, he had a great game and was just unlucky to not have scored,” teammate Kian Bagheri said.

Hinton wasn’t the only freshman to perform strongly, as Brian Birt scored twice in the first half. After his first goal, a floater over the struggling Monterey Trail’s goalie’s head, Brian drove a low second shot into the net off of an assist from Collin Holtz, who also added a tally to the 5-0 victory.

Along with Anderson, freshman Matt Linvil scored for the first time this season, off of a low shot, which hit the post and rolled along the goal line hesitantly, not quite passing it, until The Trail’s goalie inched it in accidentally.

“Every year, we try to get every player to score, so it’s a big team accomplishment when somebody scores their first goal,” Holtz said.

With tremendous success for many of the players on Thursday’s game, the Devils are bound to be confident and prepared for tomorrow’s key match-up against the Jesuit Marauders.