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The Official Student Paper of Riverside Poly High School

Kickin’ It

Feb 3, 2015

ACHIEVEMENT: Poly’s varsity boys’ soccer successfully finishes its holiday tournament and begins a new season.

By Kayla Iles, Staff Writer

This year, the Poly varsity boys’ soccer team hosted its 25th annual holiday tournament, the second oldest consecutive tournament in Southern California. The Bears played a total of five games in the tournament, finishing with three wins, one loss and one tie. In the quarterfinals, the boys were tied at the end of the game, but successfully grasped a victory by scoring in penalty kicks. The team went on to beat Poly’s rival, Martin Luther King High School in the semifinals for the third consecutive year. “The team showed a lot of growth throughout the tournament. Before the tournament [they] were a little disorganized and inconsistent,” Coach Alex Figueroa stated. They played Fontana High School in the finals and finished strong, taking second place. “We played a very tough game against number one in state (Fontana), and although we lost 2-0 it was a pretty competitive game,” Figueroa said. He added that throughout the tournament the boys “stepped up their defense and as the games went on [their] offense got better and better.”

This season, the team hopes to win league and CIF. So far the team has a record of eight wins, three losses, three ties and is ranked fifth in the area. Figueroa expressed that after the holiday tournament the boys became a better team than they were three weeks prior. Fortunately, the team didn’t have too many seniors last year, so it didn’t suffer a huge loss. Each year brings something new and this year, Figueroa hopes that with returning team members and “our young players who have been outstanding,” the team will excel.

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