The562’s coverage of Long Beach Poly is sponsored by Bryson Financial.
The562’s coverage of high school soccer is sponsored by Long Beach FC.
There, standing at midfield, was Long Beach Poly Sydney Santos. Her jersey was black with white lettering. Her cleats were green, and the 1600 Atlantic crests on her uniform was green and white. Santos’ face, though, was scarlet, as blood gushed from her nose down over her chin. Opposing players from Buena, the team Poly was hosting in the CIF-SS Division 3 semifinals, looked on in horror as Santos jogged quickly to the sideline.
There, Poly trainer Crystal Elston had her lean over while she quickly cleaned her nose out, draining it of blood and cleaning Santos’ face off while avoiding getting any blood on her jersey, which would have required a uniform change for health and safety reasons. Within five minutes of jogging to the sideline, Santos was jogging back onto the field, as Buena players looked at each other nervously.
“Clean me up and get me back out there, that’s her,” said Poly coach Angel Zavala. “That’s who these girls are. They’re not going to fold–they’re going to continue to fight until that final whistle.”
Poly went on to hold Buena scoreless in a 1-0 semifinal win, which advanced them to tomorrow’s CIF-SS Division 3 championship at Vets against Foothill at 3:30pm.
The biggest reason for their playoff run is the defense and the grit that the San Jose State signee Santos displayed in the semi. Poly’s defense has allowed just one goal in four playoff games, putting up three clean sheets in four games.
“I think a big part of is that it’s not just the back line that’s focused on defending,” said Santos. “It’s everybody. So everyone is talking and everyone’s guiding each other, and we’re very attentive to any possible risks. We pay very very very close attention to everything.”
Zavala echoes his senior’s thoughts. Poly center back Alex Valente (a CSUN signee) and fellow back line players Trinity Hamilton and Maya Geer are all top-shelf players, and keepers Caitlyn Jung and Zadie Kuykendall have answered the bell this postseason too. But a big part of what makes Poly so suffocating is the whole-team approach to defense, especially with midfielders like Santos and Washington State signee Aaya McLyn chipping in in a big way.
That’s an unusual thing in high school soccer, where players like McLyn and Santos are typically thrown up top as goal-scoring threats. McLyn thanked Zavala for letting her play her natural position, and Santos–whose ball skills rival anyone in Southern California’s–did the same.
“We’ve never focused on defense this much for a high school season,” she said. “Once we saw who we had on the team this year we really started believing that we could do something special this season, and we’ve been really detail oriented compared to other years.”
For Zavala, he said it was easy to listen to his players about their strengths, because he’s seen it on the field. And as a Poly alum, he knows that all Jackrabbits titles start with defense.
“You need to figure out the puzzle,” he said. “You have 11 pieces to put on the field and you have to connect that puzzle. We’ve been able to utilize them in the right places and it’s worked.”
Of course, technical skill and prowess is one thing–heart and grit are another. Santos shrugged off the bloody nose moment in the semifinal.
“I’m just thinking I gotta clean it up so I can go back in, I’m not thinking about how it looks, but it must have been pretty crazy,” she said with a laugh.
For Santos and the rest of Poly’s senior-heavy squad, all the blood and guts performances of the year will be worth it if they can end up as winners on Saturday.
“Winning would mean a lot, it would put the cherry on top of all our four years,” she said. “We’ve had first rounders and second rounders, but this win would make the whole experience for these four years satisfying.”
