Photo Ellie Van Houtte/Town Crier

Mountain View’s Keenan Zucker tries to beat a Menlo-Atherton player to the ball in the first round of the CCS playoffs.

The fifth-seeded Mountain View High boys soccer team ran into a wall in the Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinals: Alvarez goalie Eddie Martinez.

“We had many opportunities, but their goalie had a fantastic game,” Spartans coach Jim McGuirk said. “He was clearly the difference in the game as we just couldn’t get one past him and we lost 1-0.”

Fourth-seeded Alvarez (19-2-0) scored off a corner kick in the final minute of the first half of Saturday’s game at Gunn.

Although “pretty much the entire second half was played in (Alvarez’s) defensive half of the field,” McGuirk said, Mountain View (16-3-3) couldn’t capitalize.

While the season ended sooner than the Spartans would have liked, their coach was proud of what they accomplished. Mountain View won the league title for the fifth consecutive year,

“I think we exceeded every goal I had set out for this team considering we only had three returning starters,” McGuirk said.

The Spartans opened the playoffs with a 4-1 home win over Menlo-Atherton Feb. 20. They led 2-0 at halftime on headers by Gabe Quintela and Jake Caccamo, with assists from Cameron Lesslie and Josue Aguilar, respectively.

Quintela also scored in the second half, this time with his foot, as did Chris Barnes.

The Bears didn’t breach the goal until the game’s closing minutes – on a penalty kick.

“Our defense of Travis Pinkner, Keenan Zucker, Logan Allen and Justin Ruweler kept M-A at bay all day,” McGuirk said.

Lancers lose on PKs

St. Francis, the third seed in Division I, fell to No. 6 Lincoln on penalty kicks Saturday in the quarterfinals.

Lincoln outshot the host Lancers 4-2 on PKs after the teams ended regulation and overtime tied at 1.

St. Francis finished the season with an 11-4-4 record.

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