Boys Varsity Soccer

AND THERE HE GOES -- Griffin Jorge Harriague (19, at right) sends the ball goalward after getting past Eagle goalie Mark Salinas to tie the game.
Jonatan Muñoz, International

Griffins victors over Eagles, 2-1

The International boys varsity soccer team posted a key victory -- and avenged an earlier loss -- with a 2-1 win over Christian Learning Thursday afternoon on their home field.

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BLAST OF THE MOJICA --

Eagle Josh Mojica fires a free kick at the Griffin "wall." Ruth Nyquist, Christian Learning

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The Eagles, who had won the previous meeting between the two teams 4-3, scored first when Andres Larsen got control of the ball during a melee in front of the International goal and banged the ball into the net.
That concluded scoring in the first half of a game that was furiously contested by the two closely matched teams.
Jorge Harriague evened the score at 1-1 early in the second half when he outmaneuvered Eagle goalie Mark Salinas and threaded the ball into the net.
The winning goal was scored for International by Sergio ¨Peewee¨ Rosado with only a few minutes left when Rosado got a step on a defender in a race across the mouth of the goal and pumped the ball into the corner of the net.
Both teams continued to attack with vigor, and both goalies were forced to make outstanding saves, but the score remained 2-1.

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STRIDE FOR STRIDE -- Knight Gonzalo Prudencio and Jaguar Federico Sauto fight for control. Carlos Paredes, Cooperative

Jaguars outscore revived Knights, 5-3

The Cooperative boys varsity soccer team kept its undefeated record and first-place position intact by winning 5-3, but were seriously challenged by a much-improved Cambridge team that got three goals from star Junior Sanchez.
The game was certainly not another turkey shoot like the season opener between these two teams, in which the Jaguars shellacked the Knights 11-1.
Both teams fought hard through a first half that was scoreless until, with about 30 seconds remaining, Alfonso Roca stormed in from the right hand side of the goal and whipped a shot into the far corner past diving Cambridge goalie Jerry Killingsworth.
Roca had come zooming through on the same pattern several times during the half, but on the previous occasion had been intercepted by a Cambridge fullback. Not this time.
The scoring fireworks really began after the halftime intermission. Cooperative first added a goal to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Jaguars.
Sanchez then launched the Cambridge counterattack in earnest with two goals to tie the score. His second goal was a particularly artful effort in which he took the ball at midfield and dribbled his way past three or four defenders, then smacked the ball into the net.
Cooperative took back the lead 3-2, but things were tied up again shortly as Sanchez notched his third goal of the afternoon on a corner kick that caromed first off a Jaguar defender, then off Jaguar goalie Esteban Sauto, landing right in front of Sanchez, who pivoted and popped it into the net.
Cooperative recovered the lead minutes later with a goal that made the score 4-3, then added a coup de grace just seconds before the game ended to make the final count 5-3.
The four second half goals for Cooperative were scored by Roca, Wilson Salvatierra, Jean Bretel, and Federico Sauto, though not necessarily in that order.
No penalty cards were issued though the game was vigorously contested on the part of both teams.
The two teams will likely meet again in the opening game of the playoffs, where the outcome might be different. At the end of the game Sanchez more or less publicly chastized his teammates for their two losses to Cooperative. "We can beat these guys," he told them.