Bellarmine took long road to win a pair of crowns
Bellarmine soccer coach Conor Salcido laughed when he reminisced about the long and improbable path his team took to a second CIF NorCal boys championship.
“We traveled 900 miles roundtrip going from the quarterfinals of the CCS to the final in NorCal, which is pretty crazy,” Salcido said Monday. “I've never traveled that much in just two weeks for soccer.”
In that span, Bellarmine (17-5-3) won three consecutive road games to claim the Central Coast Section's Division I title and then conquered three more out-ofarea schools on the road to claim the NorCal Division II crown Saturday as a seventh seed.
“Honestly, they wore being the lower seed like a badge of honor, and wanted to prove people wrong,” Salcido said.
Midway through Bellarmine's season, winning even one playoff game seemed improbable. The Bells lost backto-back games to Serra and St. Francis in West Catholic Athletic League play, and then drew with Archbishop Mitty to drop to 5-5-3.
Everything changed once defensive stalwart Keagan Rhodes returned from injury.
Pairing with Rafa Romo, who his coach called “the rock in the back,” Bellarmine went on a 14-game unbeaten streak to end the year.
Senior Kasdan Blattman did what his coach described as a Lionel Messi impression as a versatile attacker, and the team also found an unexpected goal machine in freshman Nathaniel Villano once the playoffs rolled around.
“He scored five goals in five games in our postseason, and he's been the best freshman I've ever had,” said Salcido, who has coached Bellarmine since 2015. “He scored the game-winner in the CCS quarters and CCS finals, and the game-winner in the NorCal quarters.”
Holding everything together was senior goalkeeper Nic Thiele, who surrendered just four goals in Bellarmine's six playoff games. Thiele also had two massive saves during PKs in the NorCal final at Rio Americano. Bellarmine won the shootout 4-1.
“When you go to PKs, you can see the nerves in other kids' faces,” Salcido said. “But for us, it was like, `We've got Nick in goal, so we're fine.'”
The coach also gave ample credit to the other members of his coaching staff, which included Nick Butler, Henry Ainley and Jeff Rhodes. Kasey Monaco, a coach and math teacher who allowed the team to watch game film in her classroom, was described as one of the unsung heroes of the season.
Though Salcido loses stalwarts such as Thiele, Rhodes, Romo and Blattman to graduation, the coach believes underclassmen Nathan Johnston and Teo Leclair are ready to take their place when Bellarmine begins its title defense next season.