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| INCOMING FIRE -- Griffin Goalie Santiago Maldonado and other defenders brace themselves as Jaguar shot descends through the night. Eli Vilar, International |
Jaguars triumph over Griffins 3-1
The Cooperative boys varsity soccer team defeated International 3-1 in an epoch-marking victory on their home field before a large crowd Tuesday afternoon.
The Jaguars thus completed an undefeated season, with the only blemish on their record being a 0-0 tie against International earlier in the season. The Jaguars thus atoned for last year, when they were undefeated -- except for the championship game in which they were beaten by Cambridge 3-2.
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| NOT MUCH JOY IN MUDVILLE -- A big crowd of fans urged the Griffins on. Maria Eugenia Zelada, International |
The win in the championship game was the result of putting relentless offensive pressure on International, while forcing the Griffins to take mostly long and often hurried shots at the Jaguar goal.
The game was scoreless for much of the first half, though International goalie Santiago Maldonado had to make two diving saves to keep it that way.
. Cooperative finally broke the ice on an artful free kick play in which Juan Carlos Laguna faked the kick toward the right-hand side, and as he jumped over the ball Jose Manuel Vasquez stepped up and lashed a screeching drive into the upper left corner of the goal.
Jean Bretel made it 2-0 for the Jaguars when he out.fought Maldonado for the ball on the left hand side of the goal, and then banged it past a helpless defender. That's where the score stood at halftime.
Vasquez struck again well into the second half when he took control of a long kick upfield, zagged away from the remaining defender, and banged thew ball past Maldonado into the far side of the goal.
International got its score in the closing stage of the game when Andre Estenssoro was knocked down in the penalty area, and made good on his penalty shot.
Cooperative repeatedly threatened to break through for more, with Vasquez, Bretel, Santiago Paz, and Jorge Zankis coming close on several occasions.
The Griffins had their chances too. Twice in the first half Griffin speedster Jorge Harriague was able to burst into an open field with ball, but his long shots launched at full speed went wide of the mark.
International took the ball into the Jaguar end many times in the second half, but only once, on a sizzling cross, did they force Jaguar goalie Eduardo Rivera to make a truly spectacular save. More frequently the shots came in as fly balls -- or, in a few cases, line drives -- that Rivera fielded cleanly.
A bleacher-full of Griffin fans augmented by two bass drums urged their team on often out-shouting a sparser group of Jaguar adherents armed with only a snare drum, but it was to no avail. It was the Jaguars day.
Playing for the victorious Jaguars were Rivera, Jose Mozza, Hyun Kim, Esteban Sauto, Juan Alfredo Abuawad, Josue Abuawad, Laguna, Bretel, Paz, Jose David Sanchez, Vazquez, Camilo Avila, Leonardo Landivar, Rafael Sakuma, Zankiz, Nicolas Aguirre, Alejando Rosas, and Jose Marco Salvatierra.
The line-up for the Griffins was Daniel Roempler, Andres MacLean, Christian Coronado, Francisco Gonzalez, Maldonado, Estenssoro, Gary Suarez, Maykol Villavicencio, Jorge Harriague, Jorge Capobianco, Alejandro Rios, Santiago Rosado, Sebastian Velasco, Mauricio Nostas, Fernando Muñoz, Javier Barron, Joaquin Wray, and Andre Candia.
