A game away from getting into the state championship game a year ago, West Liberty High School boys soccer coach Walton Ponce says he’s “highly optimistic” this season of getting past the state semifinal game and into the finals.
The fourth year coach certainly has good reason to think that way – with a great stock of talent returning to this year’s Comet team that hopes to make a third straight run into the state tournament in Des Moines after a top-four Class 1A finish and 16-4 record a year ago.
“We are returning a lot of the players from last year’s team and the players that are coming in as freshman will make an impact on the team right away,” Ponce said. “The amount of work put in the offseason only shows that this program is set to compete for big things for years to come.”
The Comets return eight players from last year’s starting 11 that lost 2-1 in the semi-finals of the state tournament to Western Christian of Hull after taking a 1-0 halftime advantage. West Liberty also has many returning players with previous experience that Ponce hopes will fill in the three open positions and said the team also welcomes a couple of new faces as well.
Although the Comets lost Julian Alvarado, Israel Gomez, Kevin Martinez, Ronald Guzman Lopez, David Molina and Joshua Mateo to graduation, the team returns a nucleus that includes two of the top scorers in the state – senior Jahsiah Galvan and junior Juan Mateo – finishing the season with 37 and 34 goals respectively to end up the fourth and fifth highest scorers in the state. Add in the fact the pair had 18 and 14 assists through the season respectively and the Comets may have the best offensive pairing in the state.
“I think we have started to build a program where we can fill spots a little more easy due to the amount of players we have playing at the club level year round preparing us to put players in key positions including the three starting spots we needed to fill this season,” Ponce said. The coach guided West Liberty to a top four finish in 2019 as well before missing the 2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic before getting back to the state semi-finals again last year.
Looking again to beef up the regular season schedule with as many 2A and 3A schools as possible, the coach says that’s becoming more and more difficult as even a couple of those schools the Comets played last year are declining to play the Comets, but the coach says a pair of scrimmages will take place with 3A schools.
The coach said Iowa City Regina and West Liberty are the two programs that represent the River Valley Conference in boys’ soccer and says his team is looking forward to the challenge to be the top program within the conference.
Ponce said tough competition would help the team reach one of their main goals of getting back to the state tournament this spring. “We cannot take for granted getting to state and being in the last eight teams competing for a state title but, as mentioned previously, the goal is to get to that final game past the semis where we have gotten in the first two years.”
The Comets do return a lot of defensive talent as well including junior goalie Ruben Meraz. The coach says having Meraz back defending the goal is “very important as he plays an important role in our style of play and he’s a great shot stopper.”
The coach says Meraz made the Olympic development team for the state of Iowa the coach says he’s proud to have the tall defender back this year again. He said Meraz will have a promising backup in David Hernandez, pointing out the freshman has multiple years of club soccer experience.
Ponce said every player will play an important role this season and sees Bruce Songa, a sophomore, as one of the most improved players, determined to have a key role this season.
“I am excited to see his continued growth this spring and he has grown so much through this past fall and winter playing at the club level with Pearl City Soccer Club,” Ponce said.
Other members of the team include seniors Felipe Molina, Ethan Martinez and Adrian Frausto as well as juniors Alexis Garcia, Diego Hernandez, Josh Zeman, Peter Machado, Dominique Hernandez and Brian Sagastume. Sophomores on the team include Diego Sanchez and Pascual Pedro while other freshman on the squad include Javier Andrade and Mateo Simon.
The coach said bringing back two of the top scorers in the state also brings enthusiasm to the team. “Unfortunately, we will not have Juan Mateo until the end of April, but Jahsiah Galvan will be a force for us and an important part of our offensive attack for sure,” the coach said, pointing out it will be important to depend on the entire group offensively to support the attack. “Having those two great players makes the job a lot easier for the rest of the group,” Ponce said.
The team opens their season Thursday, March 31, beginning at 6:30 p.m. against visiting Muscatine, a team the Comets fell to in overtime a year ago. Their 14-game regular season schedule includes three games with larger class schools including DeWitt Central on April 15 and back-to-back games with Clinton and Davenport Assumption on May 6 and May 10 respectively.
Ponce is assisted on the coaching staff by Jose Ayala and Raul Hernandez.