Sure bet: Dias scores — Pine View soccer star quickly found his scoring touch

It started out with a simple bet: Was soccer tougher than football?

Pine View's Riley Dias grew up playing football and basketball, and he scoffed at that notion when it was presented to him as a freshman by his older sister, Stari.

"She played (soccer) before me, and we were talkin' trash to each other in our living room," said Dias. "She said (soccer was harder than football), and I was like, 'No way."'

Fortunately for Pine View's soccer program, he put his money where his mouth was, and four years later, the senior has become one of the state's elite soccer players.

Last spring, Dias scored 23 times and finished as a first-team all-stater as the Panthers won their first boys soccer state championship in school history. Now, he's hoping to cap his stellar prep career by pacing Pine View to another successful season after making the jump from 3A to 4A.

According to first-year coach Sam Johnston, who was previously an assistant at Pine View, one of Dias' greatest assets has been his work ethic.

"He's a good player, and he works hard at it," said Johnston. "I think that's one of his strengths. There's a lot of good players out there that are good enough — and are happy enough being who they are. (But) he really works at it and in games never quits."

That clearly seems to be Dias' mantra. Though Pine View enjoyed unprecedented success a season ago, he wants more.

"Yeah, I'm not content at all," he said. "Last year, our team did look really good, but this year I wanna come out and do a lot better. Last year, I had a lot of chances I didn't capitalize on, and this year I wanna make up for it."

This coming from a guy who found the net a whopping 23 times in 2007.

Though 3A MVP Francisco Arellano and fellow standout Daniel Pimental may be gone, Dias still plans to get his name on the score sheet as frequently as he did last year.

"I know he's kind of hoping to have the same output as last year — a lot of our success will depend on that," said Johnston. "It's no secret. He's scored a lot of goals. It's hard to hide a guy that's scored a lot of goals and just say, 'Oh, he's just part of ... ' Nah, it's important for him to score a lot of goals for us. It's obvious."