Bay Counties League West 2022 Boys Preview

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Bay Counties League featured one of the best teams in Northern California last season as Marin Academy enjoyed another appearance in a NorCal State final, on top of a league title and a landmark win over De La Salle during the regular season. University had a great season a year ago, reaching the North Coast Section Division IV final, while the rest of the teams will look to challenge for a top two spot and take their places.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Lick-Wilmerding</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Tigers return two seniors that should keep them relevant in the BCL race as first-team all-league outside back Jonny Locala returns. He will in defense with Jimmy O'Connell, a senior center back who is a very good defender. Also, returning junior Alec Miyashita returns. He was a second-team selection last season.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Lick had 20 underclassmen on its roster last year, meaning this season's team should have a lot more experience and be bigger and faster than a season ago. One player to watch is sophomore [player_tooltip player_id='47902' first='Atticus' last='English'], who is a defender that plays high level club soccer at San Francisco Elite. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Marin Academy</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Marin Academy won the BCL last year, as well as the NorCal Division II state title. And with that you'd expect a lot of key seniors, and there were. However, they return an excellent goal-scorer in forward [player_tooltip player_id='8195' first='Malcolm' last='Zalayet'], who was just a sophomore last season. He scored the deciding goal in the NorCal final. He is big, strong and fast.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The cupboard isn't bare when it comes to other key returners as senior Parker Mascott and junior Alex Hayward return as they were second-team all-league selections a year ago.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>San Domenico</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Panthers return three key seniors as they look to improve on a solid fourth place finish in the league last year. Angelo Neto, a first-team all-league player last year, is back along with a pair of second-team selections in Seiki Rosa and [player_tooltip player_id='7141' first='Bernardo' last='Atalla'] returning. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Stuart Hall</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Knights had 16 underclassmen on last season's roster, including 10 that were sophomore or freshman, so they will look to the valuable experience gained in order to improve on last season's fifth place finish.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Urban</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Urban graduated 10 seniors from a team that finished in the bottom of the league table, and the Blues are now turning their attention to the process of rebuilding the program. They only return two starters, and will only have three seniors on this season's team.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>However, Urban has promising underclassmen to rely on, many of them freshman and sophomore, who will look to be key contributors in what is their first high school varsity campaign. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Simi Bohuslay, a junior forward, Simon Bordoli, a sophomore midfielder and Micah Chan, a freshman midfielder, will be heavily depended on and will be integral parts of the team.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>University</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Red Devils will look to make another run for an NCS title this season and perhaps a NorCal run with a good group of returning players, led by three key players in particular. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Senior forward Jose Argueta returns and should be one of the very top players in the league, earning first-team all-league honors last year. University also returns two very good defenders, seniors Rowan Goranson and Ted Molfino, who were both second-team selections last year. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->