Last Wednesday, February 8, the Los Altos High School varsity boys soccer team won their rivalry game against Mountain View High School with a 2–1 finish. The Eagles reclaimed their position at the top of the league with the victory. They currently have six wins, two losses and two ties.

“The intensity was really high. We came into this game wanting to win,” senior Yuki Yanase said. “We played our best and we got the result that we needed.”

The team played the Spartans earlier in the season, losing 0–2 after a seven game winning streak.

“We started the game with a little less desire, maybe a little too confident that we were a good team, a first place team, a better team,” Head Coach Roberto Magellan said. “We made that mistake against Mountain View the first time and against other teams as well.”

However, the Eagles took back the upper hand with yesterday’s win, knocking Mountain View down to third place in the league with five wins, two losses and four ties.

“Today we were focused and from the start, from the warmup, from the kickoff, we were on it today,” Yuki said.

The start of the first half of the game was marked by possession going back and forth, with both teams determined to secure the upper hand. The Spartans made several attempts to score, but the Eagles stellar defense denied them of the advantage.

With 11 minutes left in the first half, the Eagles won the struggle for the ball with senior Captain Ata Sen breaking free of the Spartan defenders to make the first goal of the night.

“After putting the ball in the net, the rush of emotions is just insane,” Ata said. “This is a rival game, so I was overjoyed to take the lead.”

The Eagles continued their domination of the field, scoring their second goal of the night just four minutes later. A free kick led to a goal by Yuki, giving the Eagles a bigger edge. The ball was headed into the right side netting for a goal as the goalie guarded the other half.

“I just believed that one of us would win the header and hit it across the box, so I stayed top of the six and then the ball came just to tap in,” Yuki said.

Both teams brought the same intensity from the start of the game into the second half, with each team playing aggressively to gain control of the ball. This came to a head when Mountain View fouled both of the goal scorers of the night, earning them a yellow card.

With the second half being punctuated by more fouls, it seemed that neither team would be granted another opportunity to score. However, with just five minutes left on the clock, the Spartans were granted a penalty kick and scored their first goal of the game, bringing the score to 2–1. After a couple more goal attempts from teams, the game ended with LAHS still in the lead, showing their improvement from when they faced the Spartans earlier in the season.

“The last couple of games, we won after being down a goal, but then we would come back and score two goals,” Magellan said. “But then the boys really decided that we should step up from the beginning because Mountain View was in first place. I’m proud of the boys. We really pulled it together today.”