Valencia, Fullerton ... and, yes, Servite.

Those three teams will likely be in the county top 10 at one time or another this upcoming boys soccer season, which will be underway in about four months.

Four months!

Wow, time has just flown by since El Toro and Valencia both captured CIF-Southern Section championships in March.

But now, let's get back to the three teams mentioned above. Each participated in the Sunny Hills Summer League, which featured some of the best soccer that I have seen since I rejoined the beat last winter.

Valencia captured the tournament title after defeating two very talented teams in the playoffs: Servite and Fullerton.

At times the Tigers struggled with their organization during summer league and occasionally lost their shape. But this is a good team ... a VERY good team, quite possibly even a step above the program that beat Santa Ana in the Division II title game.

I know the fans' choice for the top team in the county is JSerra, and no doubt the Lions could be a deserving No. 1, as they have one of the best players in the county, Juan Gutierrez.

Valencia is right up there, returning 15 guys from last season's championship-winning team and  featuring an All-County First-Team quality goalkeeper, Bryan Escalante.

So let's start our closer look at these teams with an analysis of Valencia.

Here are the players Coach Barry Gardner believes will have the biggest impact on his team:

1. Escalante, Goalkeeper: He's a four-year varsity player and a vocal leader for the Tigers. But maybe most important, he has a knack for staying composed even in the most trying of circumstances. He is strong in the air and on the ground. He's a good all-around keeper.

2.   Thomas Marin, Midfielder/Striker: He has a great left foot and a good shot. He is a team captain who maintains control of the ball and goes forward very well.

3. Jesse Sandavol, Defender: He is a returning All-County First-Team player. Without him last season, there's a good chance the Tigers wouldn't have celebrated their first boys soccer championship  in school history. He does a great job in helping the Tigers keep their shape in the back.

Let's move on to Fullerton, a team that didn't get the respect it deserved last season.  The Indians had quite possibly the best group of defenders in the summer league.

For while it seemed as if they would never give up a goal, posting eight consecutive shutouts until Servite's Garrett Bradbury finally fired a shot past Fullerton's talented keeper, Dionney Reyes.

If all of these players who were on the field this summer indeed make it onto the Indians' roster this winter, they will likely be in the top five when the first poll is released.

Here are the players Coach George Shumaker thinks will make key contributions this season:

Villarruel

1. Francisco Villarruel, Defender: He was an All-Freeway League player last year. He's a solid all-around defender, Shumaker said. He is strong and has a lot of soccer knowledge. He knows how the game should be played, and he has great control.

2. Giovany Farfan,  Defender - He's practically a duplicate of Villarruel, which is probably why the Indians don't give up a ton of goals. He will join Villarruel on the outside, and he too knows how to play the game both mentally and physically, Shumaker said.

Lopez

3. Hector Lopez, Striker - He is a potent goal scorer, but he's also very unselfish and will pass the ball if he doesn't have a clean shot. He made a huge impact on the Indians last year.

4. Joel Barrios, Midfielder - His bicycle-kick goal last season against league rival La Habra  Shumaker said is one of the prettiest goals that he has ever seen in high school soccer.

 Now it's time to take a look at Servite. The summer league proved one thing about the Friars: they still haven't found a replacement for All-County First-Team keeper Chris Violas, who's now at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. 

Replacement probably isn't the right word to use because players of the caliber of Violas are hard to find. Not only was he a solid, talented player but he was a leader and an all-around great guy.

Coach Mike Lussier just needs to find someone who can keep them in some games, because they do have a group of dangerous group of defenders and forwards.

Lussier wouldn't narrow down his list of players to watch to three or four, so I will do it for him.

1. Eric Brunter, Defender: He was an All-County First-Team defedner last season, and judging by how he played this summer, he just might have gotten better. And the Friars need him to step up while their new keeper settles in. Brunter, though, this year might make a bigger impact on the offensive end as well. Look for him to score more than a few goals.

2. Garrett Bradbury, Forward: Last season he was returning to the team after being involved in a traffic accident that almost took his life. And as if that wasn't enough injuries also limited his playing time. But this past spring he ran track for the Friars and it appears that that has helped him to get his speed back.

Balikcioglu

3. Rafi Balikcioglu, Forward: I saw the Friars play more than five times in summer league, and I could see that he is the Friars big play maker, a guy who was always finding a way into the box even if he was well defende. Rafi and Bradbury will give the Friars a quite potent 1-2 punch this season.

4. Nick Echeverry, Forward - He missed a few weeks of summer league because he was working out with a professional team in Colombia. But once he returned, the Friars were a different team, having the speed and organiztion to put even the best defensive teams, like Fullerton, on its heels.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.