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Borges helps lead UC Merced soccer to storybook season
Daniel Borges
Turlock native and Pitman High alumnus Daniel Borges (9) celebrates a goal with teammates during a UC Merced game earlier in the team’s historic 2024 season (Photo courtesy of UC Merced).

There is just one word that can describe what has transpired on the grass fields of the UC Merced campus in recent years — dominance.

For the eighth straight year, the Bobcats men’s soccer club earned a trip to the NAIA Men's Soccer National Championship after an undefeated regular season (10-0-3) culminated in their third California Pacific Conference title in school history. They previously won the league crown in 2020 and 2021. Overall, UC Merced became one of just five teams with an active streak of eight or more NAIA Championship appearances (Lindsey Wilson, Missouri Valley, Rio Grande, William Carey.

Their season ended after suffering a 4-0 loss to Baker University of Kansas in their first match in the second round of the tournament last Saturday, but the result didn’t make the season any less special.

Entering the tournament, the Bobcats, led by head coach Albert Martins, were ranked No. 20 in the nation at the NAIA level. While eight players were honored for their contributions for this year’s postseason run, nobody took home a bigger award than Daniel Borges.

Borges once again made his mark on the regional soccer scene, as he was voted as the Cal Pac Player of the Year. The 2019 Pitman High graduate who dazzled local fans in June when he scored twice for Turlock’s Academica Soccer Club in a 2-2 draw in an international friendly with the Chivas de Guadalajara U23 team, became the program's fourth Cal Pac Player of the Year, joining Cody Golbad, Marcos Ceballos and Juan Flores. Additionally, the senior is the first Bobcat to earn back-to-back All-Cal Pac First Team honors in his first two years with the team since Marcus DeCouto and Ricky Rosas did so in 2018. 

The scoring and ball distributing ability of Borges is what set him apart from the rest of the field. He finished as the Cal Pac scoring champion both in the regular season (31 points, 12 goals) and in Cal Pac play (21 points, 8 goals). He had a goal contribution in 14 of the Bobcats’ 16 games and his 39 total points marks the most of his career. The 39 scores are the 15th-most in the NAIA this year.

Borges began his scoring early, opening the season with a goal contribution in nine consecutive games, and then, after the 0-0 draw against Westcliff, the Turlock native had at least two goal contributions in the last three regular season games. Borges earned two Cal Pac Offensive Player of the Week awards in his stellar campaign.

Five other Bobcats earned All-Cal Pac First Team honors with Andres Alonso, Xavier Barajas, Diego Fresquez and Jaycob Walker. Walker was also named the Cal Pac Freshman of the Year. 

Edwin Casillas, Kevin Capetillo, and Angel Joaquin were recognized on the All-Cal Pac Second Team for the second-seeded and co-regular season champion Bobcats.