Country Day’s varsity soccer team beat Paradise Adventist 7-0 on Aug. 30.

The key players were seniors RJ Vargo and Adam Akins, juniors Ishaan Sekhon and Aiden Cooley as well as sophomore Andrew Burr.

Head Coach Matt Vargo said the win had a lot to do with the team’s maturity.

“Paradise has a lot of freshmen,” Vargo said. “You can see that they’re talented, but boys grow so much later, physically, between the freshman and senior years that you can really tell the difference.” 

For this game, the Cavs also had a slightly different strategy. They played senior RJ Vargo on defense, as they tend to do against stronger teams. 

“We ran a few diagonals, but we weren’t capitalizing on them too much, but we were actually making great run,” Vargo said.

Other standout players included sophomore Derek Taylor.

“Derek is a super solid goalie, and he gives our defense a lot of confidence back there, so that’s good,” Vargo said.

One of the most shocking moments in the game had to be the goal Sekhon made, Vargo said. 

After Sekhon kicked the ball, everyone walked away. The goalie didn’t even try to block the goal. After that, the ball rolled in and everyone celebrated, and the team’s spirit was high, Vargo said.

Junior Aiden Cooley not only made an assist, but he also scored his first goal of the season. 

Cooley said he “put a couple months of training into it.” 

Cooley “never even played soccer before,” Sekhon said. 

During the game, the Cavs were able to give starters some rest.

 “We played everyone in that game that was suited up, and it was nice to get everyone some minutes.” Coach Vargo said.

— By Anika Nadgauda