The last time a Vintage boys soccer team failed to win a Monticello Empire League title was before three of this year’s standouts were on the varsity, or even in high school.

“It’s been a while since we haven’t won MEL,” said senior center midfielder Chuy Gomez, the Crushers’ captain and one of their top scorers with 18 goals.

“We’ve won it like 10 of the last 12 years, and we don’t want to disappoint all our fans, our parents, our coach, or each other.”

It’s only been since 2006, actually. Vintage finished second that year, well behind Vacaville but barely ahead of Napa. In fact, the Crushers squeaked into the playoffs that year via a 1-1 tie against the Indians in their MEL finale.

Had Napa won, it would have gone to the playoffs instead. Vintage went on to beat Folsom 4-1 and nemesis Davis 2-1 in the playoffs before falling to eventual champion Jesuit 4-0 in the section semifinals.

This year the Crushers won’t have a playoff berth at stake when they meet Napa in the last Big Game of the season, at 7 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium. But that coveted league title will be on the line. Napa (14-6-1 overall, 10-3-1 MEL) overtook Vintage (13-6-2 overall, 9-2-2 MEL) for first place with its 2-0 win over third-place Wood on Thursday, combined with the Crushers’ 1-1 tie with Armijo.

But the Crushers will still have one more game after Saturday, a makeup game at Vacaville on Wednesday.

Vintage’s 1-0 loss to the Indians in their season-opening tournament at Memorial Stadium on Aug. 29 — its first loss to Napa since 2004 — as well as a tough September in which they lost 2-1 to Fairfield, tied Napa 2-2 and lost 1-0 to Wood raised doubts that the Crushers would be able to three-peat as league champion.

“We realized it wasn’t going to be as easy as we thought, and then a couple of games later we lost again,” Gomez said. “We said ‘All right, we’ve got to start picking it up. We’ve got to start focusing and bringing up the intensity.’”

They’ve gone 5-0 in the MEL since, beating Napa 3-1 and Wood 7-2 during that streak.

“We got lots of criticism that we weren’t going be too good, and we just want to prove everybody wrong,” Gomez said. “It had been a long time since we lost to Napa. They haven’t had enough talent against our seniors and juniors of the past couple of years and now it’s kinda like broken even. It’s gotten harder (to beat the Indians) because they’ve improved and we’ve lost some key players from last year. But we’re still up there (in first place).”

Junior center midfielder Alonso “Poncho” Martinez and junior center back Adrian Maldonado are two more big reasons the Crushers are still atop the MEL, each with three goals. Martinez controls the midfield and Maldonado is finally starting to fill the big shoes of 2009 graduate George Martinez, the MEL Defender of the Year in both 2007 and 2008.

“We’re excited about this (Big Game) because we want to get first place in league, and it would be a big accomplishment,” said Poncho Martinez, who is in his third varsity season. “I think other teams were tired of losing to us and they gained confidence. In our first two games against Napa, we weren’t focused. In the last one, we were eager to win.”

Martinez said he’s always played in the midfield and enjoyed the versatility of the position.

“You’ve got to attack and defend at the same time,” he explained.

The 6-foot Maldonado, who hopes to make the Vintage varsity basketball team this winter after playing JV hoops the last two years, said his other sport goes hand-in-hand with soccer.

“They have the same sort of passing, the same sort of everything,” he said.

“Basketball helps with my conditioning and it helps me anticipate where the (soccer) ball’s going to go.”

He said this year’s win over Napa, in which Vintage gave up the Indians’ only goal in the second minute, was probably the Crushers’ best game all year defensively.

“We actually stayed focused all 80 minutes. We made a dumb mistake in the beginning, but besides that I think we played a really good game,” he said. “We were focused, not overconfident like in the first two games against them. We had to bounce back, or we’d keep digging a bigger hole for ourselves.”

Gomez didn’t start as a junior or sophomore, and when he did play it was as an outside midfielder.

“When I was a young child I always played up top (in the middle), and when I came here I played outside. It was something I had to learn if I wanted to play, so I learned it. But I started playing more, and this year I got my chance up top, and it’s fun.”

Gomez said he’d like to continue his soccer career at the college level.

“Right now I’ve just been looking for (four-year) schools to go to, as a walk-on or something, but I’ll play for a community college if I don’t see a door open,” he said.

Jesus Gomez File

Favorite athlete:

Soccer star Rafa Marquez of FC Barcelona

Favorite food:

My mom’s enchiladas

Favorite book:

“Ender’s Game,”

by Orson Scott Card

Favorite movie: Taken

GPA: 3.0

Career plans: Psychologist

Parents: Maria and Jose Gomez

 

Alonso Martinez File

Favorite athlete:

Soccer star Giovani dos Santos of England’s Tottenham Hotspur FC

Favorite food: Pozole

Favorite book: “Romeo and Juliet,” by William Shakespeare

Favorite movie:

The Motorcycle Diaries

GPA: 3.6

Career plans: Anthropologist

Parents:

Maria and Gerardo Martinez

 

Adrian Maldonado File

Favorite athletes:

Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant

Favorite food:

My sister Denise’s spaghetti

Favorite book:

A biography of soccer legend Pelé

Favorite movie: Goal!

GPA: 3.5

Career plans:

Something in criminal justice

Parents:

Esperanza and Jorge Maldonado