Yuba City's Mora named All-Area MVP

Issac Mora stepped onto Yuba City's field as a freshman having never scored a real goal. He had plenty back at "The Camp," a little patch of grass off Garden Highway where he and his friends played every day, fashioning goal posts out of buckets, sweaters or whatever else they could scrounge up.

But he had never put one through a regulation net in a regulated competition. He didn't play competitively. He didn't even play recreationally at the river bottoms. Mora had never even been on a team.

Now that he's done with high school and talking to Yuba College coach Imed Dossy about playing for the 49ers next year, Mora can go off about all kinds of goals he's scored.

"If you're tied up, there's no better feeling," he said.

That was the type of joy he experienced when putting on a Honkers jersey. He trudged through freshman year, gained confidence as a sophomore and became the go-to guy as a senior, scoring 21 goals and 14 assists to help lead Yuba City to the playoffs.

For his accomplishments, he is the Appeal-Democrat All-Area boys soccer MVP.

Since his days playing with his friends in the neighborhood, soccer has been Mora's sounding board.

"I'm pretty loud, I like to talk," he said of his attitude while playing the game. "Outside of that, I'm pretty shy."

And when he's not barking at his teammates, he's letting his feet do the talking, like when he scored a 35-yard goal against rival River Valley.

He calls that play one of the highlights of his career. Stats wise, it was one of his 40 varsity goals. Before exploding past defenders as a senior, Mora led the team in scoring as a junior with 16.

For Mora, plays like that were the reinforcement he needed to stay on task. There were times where he really didn't want to go to school or study, but he came because he would miss his game.

And that would not happen. When asked what grades nine through 12 would have been like without soccer, Mora shudders.

"Soccer's the best part of high school," he said.