Prep boys’ soccer: Senior-heavy Bella Vista closes in on a fourth-straight league title
After a 4-0 win over Yuba on Thursday night, Matteo Persiani, Harrison Low, Anthony Gudkov and Adam Nott made an unusual decision. They didn’t want to be interviewed separately; interview us as a group, please.
You’ll have that kind of tight-knit mentality when there’s 12 seniors on your team. It helps that they’re winning. The Broncos have mostly stormed through the Capital Valley Conference, racking up a 7-0-3 league record. Bella Vista will likely end up tied with Inderkum for the conference lead at the end of this week. The two teams tied twice during the regular season; Bella Vista has just one game left, against Roseville, and Inderkum plays Yuba and Roseville.
Persiani, in particular, thrives on playing with the Broncos. He quit his club soccer team because he wasn’t geared up to play college soccer, but he couldn’t resist one more run with the Broncos.
Nott, a defender, gets that. They all get it. The Broncos aren’t a club team that’s killing time before clubs start again in March. This high school season means something to them.
“Its always a blast to come out and play with your friends,” Nott said. “That’s what the sport is all about, at the end of the day its awesome to connect with each other and score too.”
It isn’t all defined by senior friendships. Senior striker Sean Battistessa leads the team with 17 goals, according to MaxPreps; sophomore brother Evan Battistessa has been a regular on the field, scoring two goals.
It’s the kind of team that just figures out how to get things done. Against the Honkers on Thursday, all four goals were scored by a defender or midfielder. Coach Matthew Contreras said that’s not a huge surprise. Teams tend to park 10 players by their own net to try to slow down Bella Vista’s potent offense. The result is a clog of players end up by the ball and defenders have about as many chances as midfielders and forwards.
Low, a defender who says playing defense comes naturally, had a goal and an assist to help lead the Bella Vista offense.
“It was a pretty big win we put a lot of points on the board,” Low said. “We could’ve strategized a little better on offense, but other than that we did well.”
The strategy seems to be going just fine this season. The Broncos figure to earn a strong seed in the Sac-Joaquin Section playoffs, which start a week from Wednesday.
The Broncos all work hard to add to the team. Low said he practices headers, so he’ll be dangerous on corner kicks. Gudkov says his job is to help with spacing and to distribute the ball to his friends.
“My game is mainly just supporting my teammates and putting them in good situations,” Gudkov said.
Naturally, coach Contreras is pretty happy with his bunch. The Broncos are going for a fourth straight league title. Yes, a win over Yuba was expected, but it’s part of the process when you’re trying to grind out a conference win and make some noise in the playoffs.
“We are going for league title, so every game is important,” Contreras said. “Every win is a step towards the seeding process in playoffs.”