A little more than halfway through its schedule, the Milpitas High School boys varsity soccer team has struggled as a number of former players, includig its top scorer, are playing with club teams this seasn.

The Trojans (5-6-2 overall, 2-3-1 in Santa Clara Valley League play) have been hurt by the loss of five players who are competing with club teams this year instead of with Milpitas High, head coach Bill Leffler said. Last year, Ramiro Ceja scored a team-high nine goals for the Trojans, but the junior is ineligible this season because of his club commitment.

“We’ve started off with a whole new offensive group,” Leffler said. “We’re in every game, but we’re not scoring tons of goals.”

Leffler said one good thing that has come out of the situation has been more playing time for younger players, who will mature with more varsity experience. The scoring and playing time has been more even this year, he said, with eight players scoring at least one goal and five freshmen contributing greatly.

While Leffler said that pretty much everyone on the team has stepped up, senior sweeper Arthur Hernandez and junior midfielder Andrew Shim have really impressed him with their play.

At 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28, Milpitas will travel to Cupertino to face Monte Vista High.

Girls soccer

Though the Milpitas High girls varsity soccer team has done well in league play this year, head coach Michael Tomlin said he hoped the team would be a little higher in the standings at this point.

Tomlin said at the beginning of the year, the Trojans (6-6-1 overall, 3-2-1 league) looked pretty balanced, but have since had trouble sealing the deal on scoring opportunities.

“It’s something we address every day in practice,” he said.

Milpitas has dropped a couple tough league games recently by narrow margins, losing to Fremont, 2-1, last week and Saratoga, 1-0, on Monday.

So far this year, Tomlin said, the strength of the Trojans has been their defense, led by senior defender Emily Orlando, a co-captain. Senior goalkeeper Vanessa Martinez has five shutouts and 103 saves to her record this season.

On offense, junior forward Lora Lee leads Milpitas with five goals and 12 points.

At 3:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28, the Trojans will host Wilcox high from Santa Clara.