Amundsen Soccer Ends City Tournament with Loss to Lake View

When Amundsen and Lake View high schools met in the city tournament last season, Amundsen beat the Wildcats, ending their run in the city playoffs.

Thursday, history reversed itself as the Vikings were the ones to fall.

The 1-0 loss ended Amundsen’s group play in the city tournament. They’ll be on a break until mid-October before starting the state regional playoffs with a 6-8-1 record. 

Lake View will go on to the city tournament quarterfinals on Saturday.

Amundsen coach Alex Perez said he was proud of his team’s effort Thursday.

“They played outstanding and really went down fighting,” he said.

The Vikings had three penalty kicks in the second half, all either missed or saved by Lake View’s goalie. Junior Rolando Aguirre shot with less than five minutes left in the game and just missed the goal.

Despite the loss, Perez said the team accomplished their regular season goal of staying in the premiere league. Schools are divided into four groups: premiere, first, second and third divisions, with premiere as the most competitive.

Amundsen was in the third division four years ago and worked their way back to the premiere league this season. 

“Our goal this year was to stay in the premiere league and we did that, which is hard because you play the top seven teams in the city,” Perez said.

For the Vikings to succeed in the state tournament, they’ll need to rely on their top four seniors. Perez said captains Juan Mendoza and Daniel Peralta have been vital in running team practices while Nirajan Chaudhary and Marco Suarez lead the team in goals.

“The team as a whole, I’m impressed and want to make sure we go far in the playoffs,” Perez said. “Now it’s just time for state.”