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Two improbable road runs to the state championship became a reality last Friday night when the boys’ and girls’ teams of San Ramon Valley claimed CIF State Division II soccer titles.
As mentioned last week, both teams were on the road throughout the tournament to reach the finals, and after a trip from Danville to Natomas High in Sacramento – another 160-mile roundtrip – both came home as state champions.
The girls’ side went through the tournament paced by an insane defense. The No. 7 seed beat No. 2 seed Vista del Lago in a shootout after a 1-1 regulation final.
That was followed by a trip to Santa Rosa where the Wolves took down No. 3 Cardinal Newman 1-0. That put them into the NorCal final, where they would beat No. 4 Mitty, also by a 1-0 final.
The victory advanced the Wolves into the inaugural CIF State Championship game.
“(Making the state finals) wasn’t a thought until probably the semifinals,” said San Ramon Valley coach Mark Jones. “That’s when we thought, if we beat Mitty, holy (stuff).”
In the final, the Wolves faced Westlake from Southern California, a team that had not allowed a goal in the tournament.
The two sides played through regulation without a goal being scored and into overtime they went, where freshman Morgan Van Puffelen scored the game-winner for San Ramon Valley. She also scored the lone goal in the regional final game against Mitty.
“It was cool to be involved in the inaugural state game,” Jones said. “What we did was crazy.”
On a couple of levels, be it the travel or the impressive defensive run.
As far as travel, the Wolves played their last two North Coast Section games on the road, then followed by playing all four of the CIF games on the road.
“That was over 700 miles of travel for us,” Jones said. “A lot of bus rides made for a lot of fun. What a great run.”
On defense, goalie Emma Henzi was the hero.
“She’s a total stud,” Jones said. “She is committed to Cal. She made amazing saves every single game.”
The coach followed by moving right up the middle of the field for his core players.
In the back Jones sang the praises of Payton Gambs and Violet Lofy. In the midfield, it was the play of Ashley Dodson and Shay Zuehlsdorf. Finally, up front the play of Brooklyn Becker and Van Puffelen was crucial.
The San Ramon Valley boys started the CIF NorCal regionals as the unlikely No. 8 seed in the eight-team NorCal field.
They went to Clovis and took out top-seeded Clovis 4-1 to start the tournament. Next up was a trip to Napa to take on No. 4 Vintage High, and the Wolves came through with a 2-1 win to advance to the NorCal finals.
This time it was the shortest drive of the tournament when the Wolves traveled to No. 6 Berkeley and a 2-1 win there sent the Danville team to the state title game.
Friday it was a drive up Interstate 80 to get to Natomas High to face Mira Monte of Bakersfield. The Lions came in 25-1-3 but they were blitzed by the Wolves, who came away with the 4-1 win.
“It was a pretty sweet journey,” San Ramon Valley coach Don Busboom said. “This year’s team showed something – getting over hurdles and adversity. We had some great leaders and the kids were relentless.”
The backstory is as compelling as the journey was.
“We had three goals when we came into the season,” explained Busboom. “One, was to win league. The second was to win NCS. The third was to make the NorCal tournament.”
The first goal saw the Wolves come up a point short when a late season tie on the road against a team they should have beaten cost the Wolves the title.
“First goal, not met,” Busboom said.
The second goal saw the Wolves make it to the NCS finals but give up a late goal and fall to Berkeley 1-0.
“The kids were crushed,” Busboom said. “It was going to be interesting to us how the kids responded in NorCal. We figured we’d be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in the D-II NorCal after losing to Berkeley.”
It figured the Wolves would be a high D-II seed but to the surprise of pretty much everyone, they got the No. 8 seed. There was a spark.
“The boys really leaned into the tournament,” said Busboom. “They were like, what, when the seeds came out.”
It meant the Wolves were on the road to top-seeded Clovis.
“We gave up a strange goal early in the game,” the coach said. “We tied it by the half, and then we were just dominant in the second half.”
That made the long bus ride back more fun.
“Clovis was a party bus for the way home,” Busboom said. “To hear all the kids singing on the way back was special.”
The second-round win over Vintage put the Wolves into the NorCal title game and a rematch with Berkeley.
“That was redemption against Berkeley,” Busboom said. “That last 20 minutes we were just trying to hang on.”
That sent them to the CIF title game against a 25-1-3 Mira Monte of Bakersfield. “We watched film coming into the game,” Busboom said. “They had some real good players, but we felt confident that we would deny their key players the moment.”
And they did. Behind three goals from Aiden DePaco, SRV claimed the state title.
Busboom said he could talk about every player on the team but when pushed he names Garret Colley, Sam Turner, Xander Lee, DePaco and goalie Brayden Kimball as the key players.
He also went out of his way to point out the roles of his 30-year assistant John Wondolowski, and first-year assistant Jamie Kelley.
Kelley coached the SRV freshman squad for five years but moved up to the varsity this season.
“He was the architect for this year,” Busboom said of Kelley. “He makes great connections with the kids, and he was able to lay the groundwork for the season.”
And the fact the boys’ team got it done following the girls’ title on the same field was the cherry on top.
“It was so cool to be out on the field warming up when Mark’s team was celebrating,” Busboom said. “We just gave each other a big hug.”
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation. To sign up for free, visit here.
