It was still called the Pride Cup, but no hardware was handed out this weekend at Pitman High School as soccer teams from across the state came together for two days of non-conference action.

Instead of a traditional tournament, which was the case for the first 18 iterations of the event, this year brought an eight-team round robin. And rather than playing for a trophy, each game counted towards official regular season standings.

Higher stakes, no problems for the reigning Sac-Joaquin Section champion Pride, as the program won all three games to improve to 5-0 on the season. 

Pitman began the opening day, Friday with a win over Weston Ranch (Stockton) by a 2-1 score before capping the evening with a 3-1 victory against Smidt Tech of Los Angeles. In their lone match on Saturday, they pulled out a 2-1 win over Grant Union (Sacramento).

“We had some last-minute issues with getting referees, so we agreed that a round robin would be better this year,” said head coach Manny Romero. “But me and my staff have been playing with this idea of having a showcase for a while now for multiple reasons.”

First of all, Romero felt it was important to schedule teams early in the year with postseason pedigree and of a caliber they may face in their own playoff runs, such as section force Grant. With playoff seeding relying on MaxPreps rankings, strength of schedule can play a huge factor. He also believes in the philosophy that iron sharpens iron, and that high-level competition can set the table for a dominant regular season and potential playoff run. 

“I think we need to play better teams to prepare ourselves for sections, because those are the teams we play. We need to start playing these teams in preseason,” Romero said.

Still, the Pride were dominant this week, particularly junior Aaron Garcia, who scored three times over the two days. The 6-foot-1, 180-pound midfielder had both goals in the win against Weston Ranch, and a score against Grant made the ultimate difference in securing the win and extending the team’s unbeaten streak to begin the year. Garcia was brought up to varsity late last season, but saw limited time on the pitch as the Pride fielded a handful of impact scorers that played key roles in going 19-5-2 last year and securing the first blue banner in program history. 

“He's showing out,” Romero said. “With his size, he’s imposing and always in the right spots, which makes it easy to see why he's scoring so much lately.”

In the win against Smidt Tech, the Pride received another multi-goal game from senior Alex Vasquez, while senior midfielder Andre Canas added a score.

Over the three games, sophomore Esagil Ishaya made over 20 saves, with much help from the defensive front that features senior Alex Vasquez, freshman Damyan Guevara, juniors Jaxxon Mendoza and Sergio Moran, as well as senior Noah Shamoon. Shamoon was a huge part of last year’s title run, with goals, assists and defensive heroics throughout. He has five assists through the first five games, including three assists during the showcase. Also assisting this week was Logan Watson, Canas twice and Vasquez twice.

“That was one of our biggest worries this year, was how do we replace Isaac Padilla (71 saves in 2024-25)?” said Romero. “We realized we didn’t need another Isaac, because Esagil is his own person. He makes the saves that he needs to make, and he has such huge support from our back line. They're not losing battles and they're making sure to limit the amount of shots that teams take. We’re off to a good start and I’m happy with where we’re headed.”