{"id":357247,"date":"2025-12-20T08:19:20","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:19:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/357247\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T08:19:20","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T08:19:20","slug":"los-amigos-boys-soccer-extends-its-unbeaten-streak-to-8-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/357247\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Amigos boys’ soccer extends its unbeaten streak to 8 games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

GARDEN GROVE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Los Amigos\u2019 boys\u2019 soccer team is on a mission to secure league and CIF Southern Section titles, after missing out on both last season. Armed with wisdom gleaned from the battles that did not go its way, and sharpening the tools required when the games that matter arrive next month, the boys had victory in its sights.<\/p>\n

The Lobos have won seven of their first nine outings, completing the 2025 portion of their schedule Thursday afternoon with a 4-0 non-league romp at Santiago that provided the means to build valuable roster depth ahead of their Coast League opener on Jan. 7 against Saddleback.<\/p>\n

It was over by halftime \u2014 credit two early beauties from Eduardo \u201cLalo\u201d Reyes and a Jason Vieyra-won-and-converted penalty kick just before the break \u2014 and head coach Jesus Razo and his staff used the second half largely for evaluation and experience, getting 21 players onto the field. They know what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Los Amigos midfielder Eduardo Reyes (10) advances the ball up the pitch against Santiago on Thursday in a nonleague boys\u2019 soccer match.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

Los Amigos (7-1-1) finished third with a mostly young group in a tight Coast League race<\/a> last year, six of eight games in a 4-3-1 campaign decided by no more than a goal. They needed penalties, as top seed, to reach the Division 5 semifinals, where the road ended with a 1-0 defeat to champion Compton Dominguez.<\/p>\n

Five significant contributors are back: defenders Julian Rivera and Erick Rojas, midfielder Juan Rojas, and forwards Jose Vargas \u2014 missing Thursday with a hamstring strain \u2014 and Jafet Ponce, the latter two with seven goals apiece this season. Razo says this group, which is \u201cmore balanced and more mature,\u201d has a higher ceiling.<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s journey, Rivera says, has \u201cbuilt belief.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Los Amigos defender Jason Vieyra (4) scores off of a penalty kick against Santiago on Thursday in a nonleague boys\u2019 soccer match.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re like, \u2018Oh, I did it last year, why can I not do it this year?\u2019\u201d said Rivera, a defender who netted a late fourth goal. \u201cWe went on a good run, lost in a really tight game, but we learned. We could do it again, and we could win it. We could win everything this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Lobos were dominant in their second one-sided victory this year over Santiago (3-6-4), in command of midfield throughout (largely through Juan Rojas and Michael Bahena), creating nearly a dozen good chances, and outshooting their longtime Garden Grove League rival, 19-6 (12-3 on frame). Their unbeaten streak reached eight since a 2-1, season-opening loss to Sunset League power Fountain Valley, a run punctuated by last week\u2019s championship triumph at Troy\u2019s Warrior Invitational.<\/p>\n

Los Amigos was ahead in the fourth minute, after Reyes weaved through a half-dozen defenders into the box after an Erick Rojas takeaway, and it was 2-0 in the 20th minute with a clinical finish from Erick Higuera\u2019s low cross.<\/p>\n

\"Santiago's <\/p>\n

Santiago\u2019s Isreal Gomez (60) and Los Amigos\u2019 Erick Higuera (24) jump for the ball on Thursday in a nonleague boys\u2019 soccer match.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t see any options [on the first], so I just said I\u2019m going to take it,\u201d Reyes said. \u201cI\u2019m in front of the goal [on the second]. Anything that\u2019s inside the box, I just hit it and pray it goes in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Rivera: \u201cLalo is magic, but he has to know it. He has to believe it. Give him the belief and things will happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vieyra made it 3-0 in the 37th minute, converting from the spot after Cavaliers defender Angel Rodriguez took him down in the box, and Ponce nearly netted a fourth, and likely would have with a lob, midway through the second half. Rivera\u2019s strike, inside the left post, came from Brayan Martinez\u2019s feed.<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Los Amigos\u2019 Brayan Martinez (20) dribbles the ball under pressure from Santiago\u2019s Bryan Marroquin (25) on Thursday in a nonleague boys\u2019 soccer match.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

The Coast League figures to be tight again, with Grove League champion Savanna and longtime powerhouse Saddleback joining the Lobos, defending champion Magnolia, and Anaheim, which reached the Division 3 title game.<\/p>\n

Reyes is confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can beat every team in the league. If we play our game, we\u2019re going to win. I guarantee it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Los Amigos\u2019 Jafet Ponce (9) holds off a Santiago defender on Thursday in a nonleague boys\u2019 soccer match.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n

Razo knows it won\u2019t be so easy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found out real quick [last year] that there is no one single [favorite],\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone can beat everybody. We can\u2019t take anyone lightly. We\u2019re going to treat every game like a playoff game.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year helped us into that grind, it really helped us develop. The overall picture is to win league. And then once we\u2019re in CIF, overall picture is win the CIF title. But [right now] it\u2019s game by game. And we\u2019ll go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Los <\/p>\n

Los Amigos\u2019 Emmanuel Garcia (14) stops the ball on the sideline in an attempt to shake Santiago\u2019s Alexander Higadera (12) on Thursday in a nonleague boys\u2019 soccer match.<\/p>\n

(Eric Licas)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GARDEN GROVE\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Los Amigos\u2019 boys\u2019 soccer team is on a mission to secure league and CIF Southern Section titles,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":357248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[59136,49,48,154317,1112,34096,9662,2002,154315,154313,8987,25086,154314,25222,6904,561,82,154316],"class_list":["post-357247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-box","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-coast-league-opener","tag-game","tag-goal","tag-last-year","tag-league","tag-lobos","tag-los-amigos-boy","tag-penalty-kick","tag-reyes","tag-rivera","tag-santiago","tag-second-half","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-unbeaten-streak"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/357247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/357248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=357247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=357247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}