Freshman Assadulla nets lone goal to lead Gregori boys soccer past Modesto
The Gregori High soccer team historically has been a late bloomer.
Coach Ethan Duewell has grown accustomed to Jaguars teams finishing second or third in the Central California Athletic League and extending their season into the second round of the playoffs.
“We’re normally a late year team,” Duewell said. “We don’t win the league, but we tend to do well in the playoffs.”
The Jaguars entered Wednesday’s contest against reigning CCAL champion and 2022 Sac-Joaquin Section Division I runner-up Modesto first in the league standings. Though it is still early, a win would keep them in prime position to finish the season as league champions.
A first-half goal proved to be the difference as the Jaguars improved to 11-1 overall and 3-0 in the league.
Though it’s a relatively young team, the Gregori coaching staff knew what they had coming in, combining returners from last year’s team and call-ups from last season’s junior varsity team.
What the coaches weren’t expecting was Maivand Assadulla. Just a freshman, he is a leading goal scorer.
“We always look for surprises coming in,” Duewell said. “The issue for us was all of our kids who came up to varsity were kids we knew about from JV, so there weren’t any surprises. He showed up and he was our only surprise coming in as a freshman.”
After 12 games, Assadulla is tied for the team lead in goals scored (6) and has assisted on two goals this year.
He scored the Jaguars’ only goal in the win, a strike assisted by sophomore David Cortez.
He is just one of the many bright spots on a versatile Jaguars team that features junior Axel Montes, who also has six goals, and six other players who have scored at least twice this season.
Cortez leads the Jaguars with six assists, senior Xavior Garcia adds five and Fernando Malagon rounds out the top three, adding three assists.
“We’re pretty even across,” Duewell said. “We’ve got a little bit of variety and we’ve got several players that we can put in different positions and they’re effective.”
Assadulla admits there was uncertainty about how his high school career would start, but as the season has progressed, he has settled in.
“Coming into high school, I was pretty nervous about varsity and thought there’s no way I was gonna make it,” he said. “I knew I was a good player, but I just thought there was no chance. Once I got to meet the players and the coaches, we started a couple of practices and they liked what they saw.”
With 11 wins, the Jaguars already are just one win shy of last season’s total. They are ranked the 10th best team in the Sac-Joaquin Section by MaxPreps, but Duewell doesn’t share that with the players. The goal is to remain focused on reaching the postseason once again.
“If the kids aren’t looking at the rankings, I’m not telling them about the rankings,” he said. “But I think we’re higher in the rankings in the section than we normally are at this point in the year.
“The wins and losses are there to get us to the playoffs. We worry about getting to the playoffs and then seeing what we can do there.”
