CVHS Advances To Quarterfinals of CIF Boys Soccer Playoffs

Pavle Atanackovic has been the lifesaver of the Crescenta Valley boys soccer team in playoffs. He came through again in the second round of the CIF Southern Section Division 4 playoffs scoring the only goal in a 1-0 shutout over Diamond Bar on Tuesday.

But his goal did not come without a price. His knees bloodied, his calf injured, his body repeatedly beaten by an relentless Diamond Bar defenders, Atanackovic scored in the 66th minute.

“The defender was kind of on me the whole time,” Atanackovic said. “He was on my back and I gave him a little nudge on the left side and got my space and just shot it to the far post.”

At 6-feet, 3-inches, Atanackovich is a force on offense. But he is also a target. The Diamond Bar defenders tried a number of tactics to slow down Atanackovich. At one point, he said he could barely walk after a Diamond Bar defender collided with him.

“On a header, I went up and landed kind of awkwardly,” Atanackovic said. “My calf kind of pulled and I wasn’t able to walk for like two minutes. I walked it off and it felt better.”

His goal came after two Crescenta Valley shots went off the crossbar and after both teams played to a tightly contested, scoreless first half.

“We believed that we could win,” Atanackovic said. “We played it with our hearts and we just kept pushing and pushing and pushing. We knew it was going to come. We hit the post twice. The goalie had a great save in the goal line. We kept pushing and we scored finally.”

It was his 37th goal of the season and his fourth in playoffs. He scored all three goals, including the game-winner in double overtime against Laguna Beach, in the first round of playoffs. His first goal against Laguna Beach broke his own school record of 33 goals.

Atanackovic has been a scoring machine over the past two seasons at Crescenta Valley. He is headed to UC Irvine in the fall to play soccer in college realizing a dream when he moved to the United States from Serbia when he was 10 years old.

Atanackovich learned to speak English watching The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, his coach Grant Clark said. He had no problem learning the physical style of soccer in America. He proved it by battling for space throughout the game against Diamond Bar.

“We watched a game film on them,” Atanackovic said. “We saw how they play. They’re aggressive and we knew it was going to be a tough game.”

Crescenta Valley (18-0-6) advances to the semifinals of the Division 4 playoffs against Salesian on Thursday. Salesian beat Sierra Vista, 3-2, in the second round of the playoffs. The Division 4 quarterfinal game will be at Salesian.

The second round game against Diamond Bar was physical, but both teams had their opportunities to score.

“We figured we were in for a good game, a tough game,” Clark said. “We got what we expected. They played their hearts out.”

When the two teams went into halftime tied 0-0, Clark said his players were becoming impatient.

“They were getting frustrated,” Clark said. “Things weren’t happening as fast as they wanted. Sometimes you hit the crossbar and sometimes you don’t.”

Crescenta Valley has not a lost a game all season. But Clark said at this point of the season, every team in playoffs is looking to go undefeated. Still Crescenta Valley has yet to lose in 24 games and the players are focused on keeping that streak alive.

“It was one of their goals,” Clark said. “Once we realized that when we got into league, and we got through that tough part, we felt like it was an opportunity. We mentioned it. It came up and we talked about it. Since we came into playoffs, it’s come down to, it’s one game, we got to win this game.”