The Leigh High girls soccer team—with seven players on the roster who live in Los Gatos—recently completed a historic season by winning the school’s first-ever CIF NorCal Regional Playoff Championship in any sport.
The Longhorns did it with a 1-0 win over Granite Bay on March 5, capping a 19-1-2 season. America Frias, one of the standouts players on a team filled with them, scored the lone goal of the contest in the 5th minute, and Leigh made it stand to cap a near-perfect season.
It was a momentous occasion because the team reached the championship match the last time the CIF Regionals were contested, in 2020. But Leigh lost 2-0 to Clovis in the Division II final. The year before, in 2019, the team lost in the CCS Division III championship match to Notre Dame-Belmont.
In this year’s postseason run, the Longhorns earned a berth in the top CCS Open Division, falling to Mountain View in the semifinals, their only loss of the season. However, every team that makes the Open has a spot in the NorCal Regionals, and Leigh rebounded from its defeat with a scintillating run through NorCals.
“When the final whistle blew, it was kind of surreal,” said Frias, a four-star recruit and UCLA-signee. “I’ve been on the team for two years, but there were some girls who had played all four years and they had made it far but have never been able to win (CCS or NorCals). So in that moment, it was surreal to finally win the biggest title for the school. There were definitely a lot of tears going around with the girls.”
Coached by former Bellarmine, Cal and Houston Dynamo product Nick Hatzke, the Longhorns accomplished their first goal of the season by winning the Blossom Valley League’s Mount Hamilton Division championship, which wasn’t decided until the final day of the regular-season.
“I’m so happy for the girls,” said Hatzke, who also coaches at club program Los Gatos United, where many of the Leigh players grew up playing and some still do. “A couple of years we had fallen short, and so we relied heavily on the upperclassmen to guide and mentor the younger players. I’m just massively happy for all of them because they worked hard and earned it.”
The Longhorns ended the 2021-2022 season ranked No. 1 in CCS, No. 7 in the state and No. 27 in the nation, according to Max Preps. In addition to Frias, the team has four other players who have committed to play at four-year programs.
That includes seniors Cadee Borg (Pepperdine), Miller Bertani (Southern Oregon), M.K. Myklebust (Columbia for field hockey), and junior Mia Erba (Oregon State). Notably, the Pepperdine women’s soccer team finished No. 13 and UCLA No. 15 in the final NCAA United Soccer Coaches’ Rankings last year.
In short, this year’s Leigh team was stacked with talent and Hatzke pushed all the right buttons in a historic season. The uniqueness of the team goes deep as there were three sets of sisters: Cadee and Kennadi Borg, Miller and Piper Bertani, and Aly and Katy Amanatullah.
All but one girl on the 24-player roster attended Union Middle School. The majority of the 10 seniors on this year’s team were part of a Union girls soccer team that won county championships in each of their three years at the school.
Frias (13 goals, 16 assists), Erba (14 goals, 13 assists) and sophomore standout Akshaya Bahugudumbi (18 goals, five assists) led a Leigh attack that was dynamic, potent and at times unstoppable. Kennadi Borg had seven goals and eight assists and was one of 13 different players who scored throughout the season, a testament to the balance of the team.
“We scored almost twice as many goals than in any other previous season and still had the defensive stinginess of previous years,” Hatzke said. “In my five years here, we’ve always had a pretty solid defensive team but at times struggled to score goals. And that’s the hardest thing to teach. It’s easier to be organized defensively, and we had that historically. This year it all came together.”
Frias, a center striker, and Bahugudumbi, a forward, constantly put pressure on teams, while Erba, a central midfielder, and Cadee Borg, a defensive midfielder, were outstanding as well.
“Cadee is one of our most intelligent players,” Hatzke said. “She’s very small but never loses the ball and is always in the right position defensively.”
Leigh played elite-level defense, finishing with 13 shutouts, a byproduct of everyone on the field fulfilling their role and playing unselfishly. Led by the backline of Miller and Piper Bertani, Aly Amanatullah, Shae Schuyler and goalkeeper Jadyn Mason—the only goalie on the roster—the Longhorns not only pitched shutouts, they limited their opponent’s possession time and controlled the pace and tempo of the game.
“Our midfielders and defenders were great at tracking back and our forwards did a good job at pressing,” Frias said. “We were solid all the way around.”
In the NorCal Final, Schuyler delivered a terrific throw-in to Frias who was just beyond the middle of the 6-yard box.
“I turned on the defense, saw no one was really there and shot it in,” Frias said. “It was just a great feeling.”
Frias and Erba had worked a couple of combo passes atop the 18-yard box preceding a through ball by Kennadi Borg. The sequence of events led to the throw in from Schuyler. Frias, Erba, Bahugudumbi and Cadee Borg were lethal in the attacking third, creating combinations to keep opponents on their heels. Frias didn’t play until her junior year at Leigh because her Academy team forbade it. However, once she was free to play at Leigh, she was ecstatic. While club soccer can be cutthroat at times, high school soccer—while still being competitive—brings a different joy and fulfillment for players like Frias.
“It brings another side to the game,” she said.
Sports editor Emanuel Lee can be reached at el**@we*****.com
