Standouts cap careers on historic high notes
East View goalkeeper Brendan Soto ended his senior season by helping the Patriots reach the state soccer tournament for the first time.
Round Rock defender Parsa Kosari finished his high sc hool soccer career by helping the Dragons win a district championship for the first time in more than a decade.
Both didn’t see their individual achievements go unnoticed, as they join the group of standouts recognized by the American-Statesman as the area’s top soccer players this past season.
Voted the top goalie in District 25-5A this past season, Soto was a 4-year-old when he played for the undefeated
Earthquakes in a Georgetown youth league. Kosari also was 4 when he earned the nickname “Big Boot” while competing with the Town and Country Porsches.
Soto will join the team at Texas Lutheran University this fall, but Kosari has played his final competitive soccer match for now. He’s electing to concentrate on academics at UT-San Antonio before transferring to UT-Austin in 2016.
East View coach Frank Litterst described Soto as his team’s “security blanket,” noting that Soto posted shutouts in 16 of East View’s 28 matches while allowing a total of 13 goals the entire season. Soto’s steady play helped the Patriots reach the Class 5A final before they suffered their only loss of 2015.
Soto became a goalie by accident. He recalled how his middle school coach asked him to play the position because the team didn’t have another candidate. After having early success as a keeper, Soto was hooked. At 5 feet, 8 inches and 155 pounds, Soto is considered small for a goalie, but he makes up for his shortcomings with quickness and a 32-inch vertical leap.
One of the best parts of his senior season, Soto said, was sharing the Patriots’ historic success with two seniors — defenders Caleb Vandergriff and Elrick Bonner — who played on that same Earthquakes squad.
Not a one-sport wonder, Soto also was a cornerback and a receiver for the East View football team. Some of the football skills he learned paid off in soccer, too.
“By playing football, it taught me a lot about using my hands in soccer,” Soto said. “And the footwork I gained from play- ing soccer helped me become a better football player.”
Kosari played football, too. He’s best remembered for kicking three field goals — including a 46-yarder with 2:20 left — to lift Round Rock to a 16-14 victory over Westlake in a Class 6A bi-district playoff game last November. For the season, he converted all 14 of his field-goal attempts, said Round Rock soccer coach Ryan Brown.
“That field goal (against Westlake) was the biggest thing that’s happened to me in my sports career,” Kosari said. “It was pretty big, and I didn’t know I could do it. It was a confidence thing, but I learned to kick a football better as a senior.”
Kosari said he had to learn “a different technique” to kick a football after years of playing soc- cer.
“It was hard at first because I’d be switching back and forth between football and soccer every day,” he said. “I’d been playing soccer all my life, but if you kick a football in the exact same spot you kick a soccer ball, you’ll shank it. And vice-versa.”
Kosari was selected as the District 13-6A MVP this spring after anchoring a Dragons defense that yielded a total of nine goals in district play.
“It was a great year for us,” he said. “Before the (soccer) season, I thought maybe we could finish fourth. The way we defended, though, and pushed through games, it came together. Even games we didn’t play well, we’d still win.”