This soccer season has not gone favorably for the teams. Despite this, there is still hope. As the players train and play together, the teams grow stronger and they can make more consistent goals.

Both teams, JV and varsity, won one preseason game while all regular season games were lost. Both teams’ records wer e0-14. These losses could be disheartening, but the team remains undeterred.

Assistant JV coach Michael So said, “While the JV team didn’t have any wins in the regular season, which can be demoralizing, I was very impressed by the fact that a solid core group of guys were dedicated and continued to come out to practices and games, even in the cold and the rain.”

Varsity’s first non-conference game was a loss with a score of 5-0 at South San Francisco High School. A week later, they played at Mills High School and lost by a score of 5-0. Their next non-conference game was against Urban and the Crusaders won 2-1. Varsity’s first conference game was against St. Ignatius, and lost 7-0.

On the JV side, their first two non-conference away games were also against SSFHS and Mills, losing by a score of 4-0 and 3-0 respectively. The day after their game with Mills, JV played against Leadership and won, 5-3. Afterwards, they played their first conference game against Bellarmine. After a tough game, the Crusaders lost by a score of 11-0.

On Jan. 17, JV lost their conference game against Junipero Serra, 8-3. After this game, the JV team began to consistently score a goal on most matches.

“Their love of the game was evident, and they were great ambassadors of Riordan and examples of the unconquerable Riordan spirit,” said Michael So.

“As the season progressed, the guys improved their physical fitness, gelled more as a team,and were able to score goals in almost all of the games of the second half of the season.”