Benefield: Montgomery soccer teams eager for more after twin victories in playoff openers

It was a double-header that felt like double vision for Montgomery High School soccer Wednesday night.

The girls are the No. 1 seed in the North Coast Section Division 2 tournament.

The boys are the No. 1 seed in the North Coast Section Division 1 tournament.

Both teams hosted the No. 16 seeds in the opening round Wednesday night.

Both teams led 2-0 at the half.

Both teams won 3-0.

Both teams could have won by a lot more.

In the first game of the night, the girls squad got up 2-0 on the visiting No. 16 seed Washington Huskies in the first 10 minutes. The Vikings seemed almost startled by the ease in which they cracked the visitors’ back line. But the scoring then slowed and it remained 2-0 at the half.

The boys had a similar storyline - up 2-0 over No. 16 seed Foothill High, with ample opportunities to make that advantage much greater.

Each side tinkered, tinkered, tinkered in front of the opponents’ goal, each side trying to make things look gorgeous when a pretty little goal would have done just fine.

“There (are) going to be times when they try to do too much,” boys coach Jon Schwan said.

The Vikings are so dripping with talent that it’s hard not to try to craft a masterpiece with every attack. The boys have 98 goals in 21 games. Ninety-eight. Goals allowed? Just as impressive: 10. It had been eight games since a team scored on them until Rancho Cotate broke the spell and played the Vikings to a 1-1 tie in the final game of North Bay League-Oak Division play.

But in that same eight-game span, they scored 41 goals.

It’s a team that can clearly find the net, and yet on Wednesday night, the boys sometimes struggled to do so - even though the final was 3-0. It could have been a much more lopsided finish had some plays ended with a strike instead of one touch too many.

But it’s a problem that Schwan sounds like he’s willing to take, as is his counterpart on the girls’ side, Pat McDonald.

The girls were up on Washington High 2-0 within 10 minutes. It looked to be a bloodbath early. And then came the tinkering problem - the same thing that afflicted the boys in the late game.

“We obviously have to finish better,” McDonald said.

“We didn’t put them away in the first half like we probably should have, but good for them. They played their (butts) off and their goalkeeper is amazing,” he said. “She kept them in the game.”

She did, in part. But the Vikings gave her some gifts, too, courtesy of shots that hit her in the numbers.

But finding any kind of fault in the two wins Wednesday seems almost silly. Complaining about missed shots in a 3-0 win? Still, this was Game 1 of a long playoff grind. Part of maintaining focus is finding things to tighten up.

“Sometimes it feels like we need to not play too much with the ball and have that final finish,” said senior Zack Batchelder, who scored the Vikings’ first two goals. “You have to make the final play.”

The final play - the final dagger - the boys drove into the Falcons was courtesy of Batchelder and center midfielder Kevin Welch. The two had been creating combinations all night, but - especially in the second half - they seem to get snuffed out just before either could pull the trigger.

Not so with 14 minutes to play. Welch dribbled from midfield and slotted a pass to Batchelder, who had his back to the goal. It wasn’t quite a backheel - his cleats were on top of the ball - but he flicked the ball directly behind him where Welch had made a run. His left-footed zinger gave the Foothill goalkeeper zero chance of making the save.

“We were trying that all game,” Welch said.

Boy, were they ever.

“Our finishing wasn’t the best,” he said. “Even though we put up three goals, there were still a bit more shots that could be put in the back of the net …just got to get the shot off once in a while.”

It was so much the same in the girls game that it’s almost eerie.

“Most of our shots did go to the goalkeeper when we easily just could have placed them,” senior Mickey Rosenbaum said. Rosenbaum got two goals on the night.

“I think we definitely could have finished some of our chances more,” said senior Abria Brooker, who opened the scoring for the Vikings just five minutes into the contest. “But I’m happy with the score, that’s all that matters. We can learn from our chances.”

The girls will face Northgate High Saturday at 7 p.m. after the Broncos beat Santa Rosa 1-0 across town Wednesday. The boys will host No. 8 seed Monte Vista, which downed No. 9 seed Napa 4-1. Kickoff is at 5 p.m.

For context on that one, the Vikings beat Napa 4-0 at home Jan. 24.

So, even with a 3-0 win that could easily be described as dominant, Schwan wanted to keep enthusiasm to a dull roar late Wednesday. This is a squad that got bumped up to Division 1 after dominating Division 2 tournament play for years.

Still, it’s early days on this Division 1 journey. He preferred to describe his team’s performance Wednesday night as “dominant in streaks.”

“Being in the Division 1 tournament, the waters are a little deeper. Getting the ball rolling was the main goal,” he said.

With three goals scored and yet another shutout, consider the ball officially rolling for the Vikings.

So, too, on the girls’ side, even as they try to tighten those loose ends.

“We’ve gotta play a little better,” McDonald said. “I’m not jumping up and down about the effort. We can do better and we have to.”