Crescent Valley High boys soccer coach Casey Fries said he couldn't be happier than he is five games into the 2009 season.

The Raiders are 4-0-1 after Friday afternoon's 5-1 nonconference win over Mountain View with a big game against Bend at 11 a.m. today.

About the only thing Fries was disappointed with Friday was the late goal his team gave up to erase a possible shutout.

CV led 1-0 at the half after a diving header by Joe Newbry in the 35th minute. The Raiders then broke open the game with four goals over a 13-minute span of the second half to go up 5-0. Julio Garcia scored twice and Andrew Metzler and Zach Rifai added goals.

The Raiders are undefeated against a tough schedule that included trips to Jesuit and Aloha for late-starting games, and a trip to Crater last Saturday. They also played at West Salem. Twice the Raiders rallied to win on the road.

The schedule gets even tougher today.

But the Raiders are happy to be playing such a challenging nonconference schedule.

"I think this is definitely our preparation for playoffs and for the teams we want to be playing with deep into the playoffs," senior captain Douglas Pentland said. "Looking at Bend, they go deep into the playoffs and we struggle with them. This is a big game for us (today) because its Bend and we want to send a message to everyone in the state."

The Raiders are experienced with 13 seniors and five juniors. Fries said the seniors took control from a leadership standpoint almost immediately.

"This is a great group because they've played together for a long time," Fries said. "There's a good understanding already and the juniors have done a great job to mesh themselves in with what the seniors are doing."

The Raiders are also deep, and the players have confidence no matter who is on the field.

"Any time anyone subbed in the level never dropped," Pentland said. "We were never afraid to pass the ball to a teammate. We're never getting down on anybody in a negative way. Everyone knows its constructive criticism. We want to make ourselves better."

That has been aided by a strong work ethic in practice.

"Because we practice so hard, we're able to come out and play so hard," Rifai said. "One of the things is we have the camaraderie going and we push each other every day and we listen to each other every day and because of that we are able to improve immensely."

The Raiders hope to improve again today and take a step toward their goal of being ready to make a deep run in the playoffs.

Crescent Valley 5, Mountain View 1

First half

CV: Joe Newbry (Chad Newbry), 35:00

Second half

CV: Andrew Metzler, 52:00

CV: Julio Garcia (Douglas Pentland), 56:00

CV: Julio Garcia, 60:00

CV: Zach Rifai (Andrew Hastings), 65:00

MV: Austin Kihs (Cam Riemhofer), 78:00