Coachella Valley girls soccer clinches DVL title with win over Desert Hot Springs
Friday’s game at Coachella Valley High School between two teams vying for a Desert Valley League soccer title was supposed to be close. It wasn’t.
The 6-0 win over Desert Hot Springs clinched the DVL title for Coachella Valley, and it added another layer to the team’s unexpected good fortune this season.
Head coach Francisco Morales, who won his 200th career game on Thursday, lost 18 seniors from last year’s DVL championship team. He returned just five players, started five freshmen and needed to recruit the softball team’s catcher just to have a capable goaltender this year.
“We didn’t know what to expect when the season began,” Morales said Friday.
To get his young roster field time together to help build chemistry and experience, Morales beefed up his non-league schedule with more games than in he had ever coached. Friday was the Arabs’ 24th game of the season, with still two more remaining in the regular season.
Coachella Valley (19-5, 12-0 DVL) will finish the regular season with road games against Banning and Desert Mirage, two teams that sit outside the top four in the league standings. Even with losses, the Arabs have already clinched the league title.
Desert Hot Springs had lost just one league game, to Coachella Valley, prior to Friday’s loss. With a win, the Golden Eagles could have made a play for at least a share of the DVL championship. Instead, Desert Hot Springs (10-6, 10-2) will finish second, regardless of what happens in its two remaining games next week.
“DHS is a tough team,” Morales said, “but our girls have just shown up the last few games and they knew we had to take care of this one.”
Sophomore striker Marisa Medrano scored two early goals Friday to help set the tone. Sophomore Daniela Pineda added another to help Coachella Valley jump out to a quick 3-0 lead.
The three goals seemed to deflate the previously energetic Golden Eagles. Desert Hot Springs continued to push hard until the end but was unable to get back into the game.
Freshman Milagros Gamboa scored the fourth goal for the Arabs and, still in the first half, senior Marifer Felix added another. Junior midfielder Leslie Delgado added the exclamation point with the sixth goal of the game.
Morales said that he had switched up his rotation and began playing new formations to find more offensive explosiveness in his lineup. It clearly worked on Friday.
“It worked out well,” Morales said. “The girls adjusted to it well, even though DHS made adjustments to keep the game (competitive) in the second half.”
Goalie Mia Villalobos, the softball catcher, finished the game with her eighth shutout win of the season.
Now, the trick for Morales is to get his squad to make a postseason run. He said that while he doesn’t want the expectations to get too high for this young group, he added that any experience they get will be beneficial as he doesn’t expect to lose any starters to graduation this spring.
“We’re proud of what they’re doing,” Morales said. “This is such a young group and it’s fun to experience this with them because they have a ton of energy.
“It gives me gray hair but it keeps me young.”
Andrew John covers sports in the Coachella Valley for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Coachella Valley girls soccer clinches DVL title
