Becerra stepped up to lead Oakdale’s section title run, nab All-District Soccer Player of Year

The Oakdale High School soccer team was poised to do great things this season.

It was coming off a 16-4-5 campaign in 2013 that ended with a playoff shootout defeat at the hands of Ceres that would be certain to push the Mustangs a little harder in workouts. On top of that, coach Alfredo Quiroga had the ultimate luxury – the chance to field a starting side comprised entirely of seniors with four years in his system.

As it turned out, Oakdale did have that great season. It ended with the school’s first Sac-Joaquin Section boys soccer title since 2003. But the team claiming that blue banner bore no resemblance to the team Quiroga expected to have. Only three of those 11 four-year players were on the pitch for the first day of practice.

And it’s a good thing for the Mustangs Jose Becerra was one of them.

“For a while we didn’t know if we were going to have a goalkeeper,” said Becerra, the Modesto Bee’s 2014 Boys Soccer Player of the Year. “Everything was against us at the start. I told our team at the beginning that we still could be as good as we wanted to be. I knew the teams we’d be up against, because after three years of playing you know who still is playing on the other teams. It all depended on how we played. If we played our game, we could make it to the finals and win, and that’s what I told the team.”

Then Becerra went out and led by example. He pushed his teammates in practice and became Quiroga’s coach on the field. He led the team with 25 goals and 12 assists as it rolled to a 20-5-3 record. And at the season’s ultimate moment, it was Becerra’s goal from 25 yards in in the second overtime that gave the Mustangs a 2-1 victory over Christian Brothers in the section title game.

“It was something you think about as a little kid – scoring the game-winning goal and winning a championship,” said Becerra, who plans on playing college soccer but has yet to decide what school he will be attending this fall. “I have a lot of family who have won section titles. Some of them have won three of the five that Oakdale has. We’re all competitive and I’m the youngest of all of them. I always wanted to get one, just to be competitive with the rest of the family.

“Some of the best players ever to play here are my family or friends, and I just wanted to get one. It’s special to get one with this team – they earned it – since we were so young.”

Oakdale’s playoff run to the title as the No. 3 seed in Division III was a breeze until the final. It took care of Johnson 4-0, handled Rio Americano 5-1, then traveled to No. 2 Patterson and jumped on the Tigers for two quick goals in a 3-1 victory.

The Patterson game offered some moments not often seen on the high school pitch. The players, many of whom know each other through club play, went at each other hard in a very physical game. At the final whistle several Tigers fell to the turf, distraught at the sudden end of their season.

Becerra, seeing friends and respected foes in pain, delayed his own team’s celebration by grabbing teammates to help console the Patterson players in a remarkable show of class and sportsmanship.

“A lot of teams could care less about the other team’s feelings, but I told my teammates that we needed to go help those guys out,” Becerra said. “I know that if we had lost the game we would have appreciated some help. All of us were looking to win the same thing, and there will be winners and losers. I know it’s tough to lose and if we were in that same situation it would have been cool for Patterson to help us out.”

Earlier that same day, before the Mustangs and Tigers started their night game, all the players found out that Christian Brothers had beaten local power Central Valley 4-0 in the other semifinal. That wasn’t just a score, it was a statement.

“We knew that score before we played our game against Patterson, so some of the players already were worried about Christian Brothers and I had to tell them that we needed to take care of Patterson first,” Becerra said. “Then, when we played Christian Brothers, we knew that on any day, anything can happen. Their statistics were impressive, but they’re only numbers. You never really know about a team until you get on the field with them.”

And, as Becerra discovered for himself, you really don’t know about your teammates – even the seniors – until they show up to claim a uniform.

“I knew that some weren’t going to play because they were working or they left the school,” Becerra said. “It was going to be a test for the team, but we still were going to be good. It also was a personal challenge for me. Alfredo had told me that the three remaining seniors were going to be captains, and I took it as a challenge to push myself and to see how far we could take the team.

“That’s what made this team so special – everyone supported each other and wanted everyone on the team to get better. If one of us messed up and we gave up a goal, we looked at each other knowing we could get it back. I wanted to push the younger players, but without them knowing it. I was really pushing myself at the same time.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2015 at 6:29 PM with the headline "Becerra stepped up to lead Oakdale’s section title run, nab All-District Soccer Player of Year."