Oxford’s patriot athletes competed in the annual 2026 HOCO basketball and soccer games on Jan. 16, facing off against the formidable Cerritos Dons. Although the final scores did not fall in Oxford’s favor, the games were a great showcase of patriot pride and perseverance.
Kicking off the games were boys Junior Varsity and Varsity soccer at home. Despite JV’s best efforts, they were outscored by Cerritos 0-4. Simultaneously, the Varsity squad took to the field; however, the Dons’ offensive pressure led to a 0-3 defeat. Physical health has also become an issue for the boys soccer team, as they’ve had to play without key players, such as their starting goalie.
“Right now we have a lot of injuries so I think we need to just rest up and keep pushing in the season,” junior Nathan Zhou said. “[Our season] is going pretty rough but at the end of the day we just have to keep looking for a win and not give up.”
Away at Cerritos High School, girls Varsity soccer readied for their match. Despite a tough 0-6 loss, the team believes in learning from this game.
“I think Cerritos is a team that moves around a lot, so they take advantage of our gaps and positioning. I think we can learn how to position ourselves better so that they don’t get through us as easily,” junior captain Maya Diaz said. “I’m just proud of the effort everyone put into at least keep trying and keep playing throughout the whole game.”
Meanwhile, the JV boys basketball team ventured into the Cerritos gym. While they kept the score close throughout the first quarter, Cerritos began to pull away later in the game, resulting in a 44-61 loss.
Back on home court, girls Junior Varsity basketball suffered a decisive defeat losing 13-55. Following them, the Varsity girls looked to see if they could finally turn the tide. After a slow start, the Lady Patriots saw themselves trailing by just 15 points in the second quarter. However, after halftime, the game started to take a turn. Multiple three-pointers made by the Lady Patriots fired up the crowd and the Oxford audience cheered as they went on a massive scoring run, managing to tie the score in the third quarter.
“I think we scored over 20 points [in the third quarter], and overall in the season we usually have very low scoring games, so I’m really proud of the way we were able to keep up with Cerritos,” junior Chloe Chen said.
Despite the momentum shift, in the fourth quarter, Cerritos began to pull away again, widening the gap to a final score of 43-65.
“Cerritos was a much better-conditioned team than we were, and they were able to keep going at full speed. I think our team was just really tired out,” Chen said. “I think that was the main reason why [we lost.] We need to make sure to keep our legs fresh for the fourth quarter.”
Tensions were high in the Oxford gym as the Varsity boys basketball team was determined to win the final game of the night. The Cerritos Dons jumped to an early 7-15 lead by the end of the first quarter. Despite getting open three-point shots in the second quarter, the Patriots were met with a frustrating cold streak and couldn’t get their opponents to fall, as the gap widened to 14-25 by halftime.
“Before our game, we had a couple of rules set by our coach, and we executed all of them well. The only thing that went wrong was our shooting ability,” junior Parth Patel said.
After the halftime intermission, however, the Patriots came out strong, making a run in the third quarter. Senior captain Colin Das led the way, aggressively driving past defenders to the rim and drawing fouls to get to the free-throw line. With each successful shot, the Oxford crowd erupted in excitement, cheering loudly.
“Seeing our student section cheering us on every time we scored a point definitely encouraged us, and it kind of shook off that nervous feeling and made it feel like we were playing with the student section,” Patel said.
Following two consecutive three-pointers by senior co-captain David Jung, Oxford managed to close the gap to 7 points, leading to a Cerritos timeout. Yet, the comeback fell short as the Dons made a final run in the closing minutes, with the final score buzzing in at 42-55.
“The HOCO game was one of our worst performances in shooting, and if we just clean up our shooting performance, then we’ll be a solid team. We know we can definitely beat Cerritos and every other team in the league as long as we stay at our top performance,” Patel said.
