For some people the coming of September means the end of summer, no more sunny beach days or hanging out carefree by the pool. For others that may be true, but for the Cabrillo College Men's Soccer team the coming of September means the chance to take the field again and pursue their hopes of going deep into the playoffs. They will begin their quest this Friday at Santa Rosa Junior College.
For the Seahawks the goal is to build off the year they had last year in the unconventional Covid season. "The goal for our team is to be dominant and win the conference championship, then go out and make a run for the state title,'' said returner Oscar Esqueda. They will be doing so with an arsenal of young talent, as well as a handful of skillful returners. On this year's roster Cabrillo will have twenty two new freshmen and nine returning sophmores. They will be led by sophomore midfielder Oscar Esqueda out of Santa Cruz Highschool, who The Seahawks have looked to for offense over the past two seasons. In the 2019-20 season Esqueda scored 6 goals to go along with 4 assists. He will be a big part of the success of the offense and team as a whole this year.
On the roster Cabrillo has plenty of homegrown talent, with twenty players from right here in Santa Cruz County. Also on the roster the Seahawks did some recruiting internationally, as they field seven players from overseas. The country of France will be represented well with freshman midfielder Thomas Bugnet, freshman midfielder Matheo Vacherat, sophomore midfielder Maxence Huin, freshman forward Mohamed El Kaddouri and freshman defender Brie Baptiste. Along with the Frenchman the Seahwks will also suit up Anas S. Chakib, a freshman midfielder from Luxembourg and Eoin Moynihan a sophomore defender from Ireland. The Seahawks will look to their international players for a variety of assistance on the field throughout the year.
The Seahawks believe they have the pieces they need to elevate their game to the next level and they have prepared quite well for their upcoming season. "We've played tough competition in our preseason, which will help us speed up our game play and deal with pressure more effectively," said Anthony Rivera Centeno, a freshman defender from Santa Cruz. Cabrillo took on the San Jose Earthquakes U23 team earlier in the week in a preseason scrimmage, as well as division 3 UCSC last week.
The Seahawks are well prepared and very eager to begin their season this Friday as they take on Santa Rosa. With tough matchups to prepare themselves, mesh their new roster and build chemistry they serve to be a tough task for any opposing team in the conference and the state.
Ricky Parra