All Area: Clemons a Bulldog defender
| Thursday, Apr 02 2009 09:58 PM
Last Updated Friday, Apr 03 2009 05:12 PM
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Alex Horvath / The Californian Golden Valley's Matt Clemons is our boys soccer player of the year, photographed here on Golden Valley's soccer field on Wednesday.
Alex Horvath / The Californian Golden Valley's Matt Clemons is our boys soccer player of the year, photographed here on Golden Valley's soccer field on Wednesday.
Matt Clemons relishes the challenge of facing an opponent's best offensive threat.
And that attitude rubbed off on his Golden Valley teammates.
Clemons is The Californian's All-Area Boys Soccer Player of the Year after a season that saw him shut down opponents throughout the year and anchor a defense that simply dominated.
"I go into games with a lot of confidence," said Clemons, who has been playing soccer since he was 6 and was a first-team All-Area pick last season. "I know if I do my job, we'll win the game."
The Bulldogs went 25-2-3 this season, 9-2-1 in the Southeast Yosemite League and 13-0-1 at home en route to the Central Section Division III championship.
In three playoff matches, Golden Valley allowed one goal: against Highland in a 3-1 win. The Bulldogs shut out Madera South 1-0 and won the title with a 1-0 win over Porterville.
Golden Valley had 19 shutouts this season and 20 shutouts a year ago in a 25-5-1 season. The Bulldogs outscored their opponents 83-16 this season.
For Golden Valley coach Troy Lynch, he would simply pencil in Clemons to defend the opponent's best scorer.
Like Eligio Morales of Division II champion Tulare Western, who had 44 goals this season but only one when Golden Valley won 4-1 at the late-December Garces Tournament.
Or Porterville's Santiago MacHuca, who had 33 goals but couldn't break free in the section championship game.
"I just keep them in front of me; I watch their feet," Clemons said. "If they get past me, I get back as quickly as I can."
Clemons said opponents occasionally broke free.
"It happened a couple of times," he said. "My teammates came out of nowhere and covered for me. My teammates have my back -- 100 percent."
Lynch, who just completed his sixth season as Golden Valley's soccer coach, called Clemons the best marking back he's seen in the history of Golden Valley's program.
"Matt steps up to the challenge," Lynch said. "Matt reads the game very well. He knows how to play defense, how to stand a player up so he can't run and be dangerous.
"Matt's very quick, so if he gets beat, he can recover."
Clemons said he began focusing on defense when he was 12 or 13 and playing for the Storm club team.
He focused on defense. Offensively, he had four goals and three assists this season.
"To tell you the truth, I'd rather have an assist than get a goal," Clemons said. "I enjoy doing what I'm used to doing and let someone else do the easy job."
Clemons said he plans on playing college soccer next season, but it will likely be at the junior college level.
Bakersfield College doesn't have a men's soccer program, so Clemons said he is looking at schools such as Santa Barbara City College, Santa Ana College, Cerritos College of College of the Canyons.
In the meantime, he's busy playing center field and batting leadoff for the Golden Valley baseball team.
He planned on playing football in the fall as a slot receiver and defensive back. But he broke his left foot before the season started and missed the entire season.
"I was released to play soccer the day of our first scrimmage," Clemons said. "It gave me a little trouble at first because I was out of shape, a little rusty. About two weeks later I was back and ready to play."
