With just seven matches left in the Coronado Islanders boys’ soccer team’s schedule coming into last week, every game from here on out has the feel of a must-win.

While last week was perhaps not the boys in green and whites’ cleanest fútbol, it was still good enough to pick up two critical league wins over both Crawford and La Jolla High School, placing their record in City League play to 3-1, good enough for possession of second place in the league standings.

“I think this week showed that we don’t have to play our best soccer to win; we can win ugly when we need to,” noted Head Coach Jeff Roe. “We took care of business where and when we needed to, and while we were happy with the outcome, we still expect ourselves to play better moving forward.”

In their opening game of the week against Crawford, Coronado’s attack took the liberty of setting the tone early as they easily controlled possession at the midfield and attacking third thanks to the aggressive play of Aiden Treishman, Ryan Chalepas, and Noah Santos.

The trio relentlessly worked the ball in and just outside of the box and put the Colts on their heels from the first whistle. After a couple of close looks in the 22nd and 25th minutes, Coronado would finally put their first goal in the back of the net in the 30th.

Treishman would come away with an excellent steal at midfield and play a quality ball forward to Santos. Crawford’s keeper would come flying out of the box, slide, and attempt to clear the ball. Rather than clear it, the ball spun in the air and fell again to Santos’ feet. Santos then quickly laced the ball back to a cutting Treishman, who buried it in the bottom left corner to make it a 1-0 Islanders lead.

Coronado would go on to add another goal in the second half, but the final 45+ minutes of Tuesday’s game were highlighted by the play of their backline and, more specifically, the play of Islanders keeper Leo Salata.

In the second half alone, Salata made three critical saves and ultimately finished the game with a clean sheet—the first of two this week and his third in his last five games.

“Leo has seen a ton of improvement this season. He is an extremely coachable player who has come a long way since his first start against Santana,” noted Roe. “He has put in a ton of work with our goalkeeping coach, Esteban Toscano, who deserves a ton of credit as well.”

Following the 2-0 win against Crawford, the good times continued to roll for the Islanders as they returned home Thursday night to take down La Jolla 1-0.

After a scoreless first half of action, Coronado would find the game’s lone and eventual game-winning goal in the 46th minute. Senior captain Ethan Messner would send a beautiful cross from 26 yards out into the box to an unmanned Becket Herr. Herr put a phenomenal touch on the ball to settle it and then beat the keeper to the near post to give Coronado the 1-0 lead.

“The boys knew they needed to win that La Jolla game, and they got the job done and executed in our spots when they had to,” noted Roe. “And that was a great finish by Becket; he is a weapon no matter where we put him on the field. He has a great soccer IQ and work ethic.”

With just five games left in the regular season, Coronado is set to return to action this week for two more: a non-league game on January 28 at home against Escondido Charter and a road league match against Madison on January 30.