The defending Valley Champs open season with eight straight dominant wins
TULARE – In 2019, Tulare Western proved to be one of the most dominant teams in the Central Valley. They opened the season with an impressive 13-1 record, before going on to win their first Valley Championship in program history. After a year off, this team hasn’t skipped a beat as they’ve won their first eight games in dominant fashion.
The Mustangs are a perfect 8-0 to start the season and have outplayed their opponents by a combined score of 124-22. It’s a bit of deja vu to their 2019 championship run when they won the first six games of the season before their first loss and then they went on to win seven straight games after that for a 13-1 record.
Despite the strong start, head coach David Hodge deems his team will surprise some people this year. According to Hodge, their roster is smaller than it was two years ago but the quality of players is still there. Of the 10 players on the squad, nine are seniors and four are returners from 2019. Cole Costa started at goalie while twin brothers Aidan and Duncan Champagne plus Austin Hodge combined for 65 goals as sophomores. This year, the trio has already combined for 52 goals through the first seven games. Hodge leads the team with 28 which is already more than he had as a sophomore, and that doesn’t include stats from Monday’s game against Mission Oak which were not posted by press time.
