Colton, CA—From winning the San Andreas league title to losing in the CIF semifinals and many starter seniors, Colton girls soccer finds themselves rebuilding in 2024-2025..
Besides losing several seniors from the 23-24 squad, the biggest change this season is the move from the San Andreas League to the Sunkist League. Last season, girls soccer went 6-2 in San Andreas, finishing with the league title. In the CIF playoffs they dominated their first two games before facing Diamond Ranch in the division semifinals, losing 2-1 and ending their run to the championship.
Last year’s success has provided the building block for this season’s team. “What’s positive right now is what happened last season,” said head coach Manuel Flores. “We are taking in from last season what worked and what didn’t work, and we are bringing it into this season.”
At midseason, the Yellowjackets have not disappointed. The Sunkist League consists of schools Carter, Grand Terrace, Rialto, and Bloomington. The girls opened their league schedule winning matches against Bloomington and Rialto.
Those wins, which came as part of a seven game win streak, set the Yellowjackets in first place going into the new year.
That lead came to end with an unfortunate 0-4 loss to Grand Terrace on Jan. 8..
Later that week, on Jan. 10, the Yellowjackets dropped a game against Carter, losing 1-3. The team has struggled with injuries to their roster, and Carter left the game with possession of first place.
With the Yellowjackets 9-1 blowout victory over Notre Dame yesterday, they are now 9-5 on the season, giving them a shot in the playoffs. Grand Terrace’s 3-0 victory over Rialto on Jan. 10 puts Colton in 3rd place.
The road to the playoffs is now complicated. In the previous years, the top three teams in the league qualified, but CIF updated their rules this year, now giving teams all around more of a challenge to enter the playoffs.
There isn’t a set number on how many schools, but an average number of the first 260 schools will be split 1 through 32 into nine divisions, depending on overall power rankings, record and home and away wins/loses. Allowing each division to compete against each other for the CIF title.
The hope of another trip to the playoffs has the team excited with five games left to play in the regular season. Team captain Cambria Duron shared the team’s goal:
“Hopefully go to CIF and this time, Win it.”
