In what often looked more like hockey or water polo than soccer, the West Valley men's soccer team shut out rival Evergreen Valley 1-0 in a physical and crucial Coast-South Conference contest Friday in Saratoga. The overflow crowd at Dick Schwendinger Field witnessed innumerable referee whistles mixed in with a brilliant West Valley defense that constantly controlled the midfield and shut down the speedy EVC offense. The win helped the state #13 Vikings (8-4-2, 6-2-1 Coast-South) leapfrog #2 EVC (12-2-3, 5-2-2) into a tie atop the conference standings with #11 De Anza (10-4-2, 6-2-1). The Vikings host the Mountain Lions in the conference finale 11/15.

The Vikings got the only goal they would need in the 31st minute when a Brian Diaz shot emerged from a scrum in front of the Hawk goal and into the back of the net. Pavan Nawbatt got the assist, his 4th of the season. For the next 59 minutes of regulation and 12 minutes of stoppage time, the two sides battled each other in arguably the most physical contest of the year, resulting in seven yellow cards and one red card. 

Keeper Leo Godinez stopped all four EVC shots to record his 2nd clean sheet of the season and run his, and WVC's, unbeaten streak to five games.

WVC hits the road this week for games at Gavilan (3-11-2, 0-7-2) Tuesday (11/5) and Chabot (7-4-5, 3-2-4) Friday (11/8). Kickoff for both contests is 4:00pm.