Teams, players who stood out at Capital City Showcase

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Capital City Showcase has rapidly turned into one of the premier showcases, not only in California, but in the Western United States, as top teams from the state of California come to square off. This year featured teams ranked highly in their sections, and some teams ranked in the top 25 of the entire state. Here is how some of the teams did, along with their standout players.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Davis</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Blue Devils had two good wins, beating Central-Fresno 2-0, and then topping a very good Marin Academy team 1-0.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Josh Morris was a standout player for Davis, scoring two goals as the junior forward also added an assist. Fellow junior forward Oliver Fleet had a goal and an assist in the two games while midfielder [player_tooltip player_id='7493' first='Dylan' last='Ehlers'], also a junior, had an assist. To continue with the theme of standout juniors, keeper [player_tooltip player_id='285099' first='Dylan' last='Hotaling'] had two clean sheets. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The defenders were excellent, especially against Marin Academy standout [player_tooltip player_id='8195' first='Malcolm' last='Zalayet']. The Cal commit had a game with four goals recently, but the combination of Logan Locaste, [player_tooltip player_id='8832' first='Zachary' last='Schroeder'], Diego Nieves and Gavin DeBrito held him to one shot on goal. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Jesuit</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Marauders had two tough opponents, facing Redwood-Larkspur and Bellarmine Prep, topping Redwood 1-0 and drawing 2-2 with Bellarmine.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In a high-energy, back-and-forth match with Redwood, senior forward Kellen Jacot, who plays on the outside, scored the lone goal while senior center back Eric Jensen provided the assist. [player_tooltip player_id='41555' first='Jordan' last='Victor'], the Stanford commit, and Drew Perry, the senior keepers, combined for the clean sheet. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Senior center back Charlie Black was excellent in defense, while senior midfielders [player_tooltip player_id='7816' first='James' last='Andrew'] and Talbot Carter held down the middle of the pitch while senior striker Diego Perez, who is a Chapman commit, was a force to be reckoned with. A sophomore forward, [player_tooltip player_id='8520' first='Renner' last='Smiley'], was also a problem for the Redwood defense. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Against Bellarmine, Aiden Sandmeier, a senior striker, scored a goal assisted by Jacot, which was a beautifully built up goal as Jacot played the ball into Sandmeier, who played it back to Jacot, who went right back into Sandmeier, who finished.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Smiley scored the second goal on a free kick, while Bellarmine got its goals from Thomas Dumont, who had the brace. The assists came from Nathan Johnstone and Jason Gore.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Marin Academy</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Wildcats played Central Valley-Ceres, winning 2-0, and had the aforementioned 1-0 setback against Davis. Against Davis, they ran into an inspired defense, and had a hard time creating, but in their first game with CV, Zalayet and Alex Hayward were forces.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Zalayet scored a goal in the win, while senior keeper Alex Hayward made big saves and kept a clean sheet in the win. Zalayet is a captain and a leader, while Hayward really brings the defense together. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Rocklin</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Rocklin only featured once in the Showcase, beating East Union of Manteca 3-0. Luke Georgeson a junior striker, scored the first goal, a 7th minute strike, with the assist from junior central midfielder Trace Lechner. Jovan Petrovich scored the second goal, as the senior forward scored thanks to an assist by senior midfielder Niko Radovic and Petrovich struck again just before time, with Georgeson assisting. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Holding midfielder [player_tooltip player_id='223750' first='Jovan' last='Radovic'], a sophomore, junior center back Austin Taylor and outside back [player_tooltip player_id='7639' first='Gabriel' last='Tavares'], a sophomore, were stellar for Rocklin was was central midfielder Carter Haynes, a junior, who controlled play.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Whitney</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Wildcats had an impressive showing, beating an good Bellarmine team 2-0 and then playing tough against an excellent Redwood team, losing 2-1 on a stoppage time goal. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Junior [player_tooltip player_id='7305' first='Cody' last='Wagner'], a forward, was dynamic, scoring the first goal against Bellarmine and keeping the pressure on the defense. He is just getting his fitness back, returning from a broken leg, and despite this, was strong on the ball, connected well with teammates and found himself in strong positions.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Junior center back [player_tooltip player_id='8581' first='Ruben' last='Ramirez'] was strong defensively in both games, locking down the left side of the attack. He was very good on the ball, and also very good going forward in the build up. He showed good feet, was able to connect the ball to all levels and played very well defensively.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->