Early test for Vikings

It can be a fine line between a game that shouldn’t determine the fate of a team this early in the season and a game that can do just that. In advance of the Montgomery Vikings boys soccer game against visiting Berkeley High on Saturday, coach Jon Schwan is trying to navigate that fine line.

Yes, this is still before league play begins and the game won’t affect the Vikings’ quest to win their fourth straight North Bay League title. Yes, we are only seven games into the season.

But there is this: The Berkeley High Yellowjackets are the defending Division 1 North Coast Section champs — and more than that, they are the team that ended the Vikings’ season last year when they beat them 4-1 in the NorCal regional opener.

In talking about this game, Schwan said yes, it is important, all games are important, but no trophies will be given out

KERRY BENEFIELD

Saturday. Still, make no mistake, this one will be good.

The Vikings are 7-0 and are scoring goals seemingly at will. They have 30 goals and have allowed six. (As an aside: The good news locally is that the team that gave the Vikings the tightest game was Piner. The Vikings won that Dec. 20 contest 2-1.) Berkeley is a Division 1 program. So is San Ramon Valley, the team the Vikings play next at home on Jan. 11.

Berkeley comes in with a 4-1-4 record that is probably a little deceptive. The Yellowjackets are a squad that went 21-1-4 last year, including a 3-3 tie with Montgomery in January well in advance of that NorCal playoff game.

And that is a game that has not likely been forgotten by some current Vikings.

“We bring back some players who are going to be hungry from that,” Schwan said. “It’s going to have that vibe, that playoffs feeling.

“They are an aggressive team; they like to attack and so do we,” Schwan said. “Our first game (last season) was 3-3 and the second game was 4-1. There is no shortage of goals.”

For firepower, the Yellowjackets have University of Washington-bound Kalani Kossa-Rienzi. As a junior last season, Kossa-Rienzi was named the WACC-Foothill Player of the Year, Prep2Prep’s NCS Player of the Year and second-team USA Today All-American.

“He’s a complete game changer,” Schwan said. “We are going to have to look out for him.”

Another game changer? The Vikings’ Zack Batchelder, a super-exciting striker who Schwan describes as “probably the best goal scorer in the NCS.” And right behind him is fellow senior Kevin Welch at central midfield.

“We play him more in an attacking role,” Schwan said of Welch. “He and Zack have such good chemistry.”

The Yellowjackets will test a Vikings defense that Schwan said is better than last year’s — and that was a defense that allowed just 19 goals in 24 games.

In goal, junior keeper Emmanuel Padilla has been starting since the playoffs at the end of his freshman season.

“As a goalie, he’s lost two games and they were both in the CIF playoffs,” Schwan said. “It’s experience you just don’t get.”

In front of him is a back line of Daniel Ledesma and Gabe Tucker in the middle and Gabriel Guerrero on the right and Noa Maurer-Mabanglo on the left.

“It’s the fastest group we’ve had back there,” Schwan said. “We feel real comfortable with those guys in front of (Padilla).”

They have a tall order with Berkeley’s Kossa-Rienzi, but they have to feel confident. The Yellowjackets lost 3-2 to San Ramon Valley (5-1-1) on Dec. 21. And San Ramon Valley lost 3-1 to Vintage on Dec. 9 — the same squad that the Vikings handled rather easily on Dec. 18 in their 5-2 home win.

But as the saying goes, games aren’t won on paper. And these games are important.

Success in these next two games could pay off come mid-February when North Coast Section playoffs begin. This season, Montgomery will be playing in the Division 1 bracket, since the Vikings were bumped up after playing in the Division 2 title game the past three seasons and winning the title the last two.

And the Vikings know how seeding can affect playoff dreams.

Last season the Vikings were 21-0-2 and fresh off of their second straight Division 2 section title when they were almost inexplicably given the sixth seed in the NorCal playoffs.

That seed meant that the Vikings had to travel to Berkeley High and face the Yellowjackets on their home field and with their home crowd.

It was tough sledding, hence the 4-1 loss.

Schwan was quick to say that no trophies will be given out Saturday, but it’s also abundantly clear that a win — perhaps an emphatic one — could boost not only postseason seeds but the Vikings’ level of confidence heading into league play. The next game against San Ramon Valley? Same deal.

So what about that promotion to Division 1?

“I try to take it as a compliment,” Schwan said. “Obviously we didn’t get there by losing.

“At the same time, it’s kind of disheartening because you are left with a kind of punishment feeling, too,” he said.

But remember, the Berkeley Yellowjackets are defending Division 1 section champions. Beat them on Saturday and the Vikings make the section committee who bumped them up look pretty smart.

Beat San Ramon Valley the following Saturday and those committee members look downright prescient.

Or they just see the obvious. The Vikings have dominated play in these parts for the past three years.

They have gone 71-9-6 since the beginning of the 2016-17 season. They have won the North Bay League title all three years and went to the section championship three times, winning it the past two years.

Trophies may not be doled out this weekend, or next, but these games will be a key indicator of how the best team around stacks up against teams with very solid resumes.

“No matter what happens, we can leave the field Saturday better,” Schwan said. “Win, lose or draw, we have the opportunity to be better for it.” You can reach staff columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat. com, on Twitter @benefield and on Instagram at kerry. benefield. Podcasting on iTunes and SoundCloud, “Overtime with Kerry Benefield.”