Varsity Boys Soccer - September 15

Griffins Finish Off Knights 5-0
By Oscar Prudencio, SCIS

With the Griffins winning all of their previous games of the day, it was up to the varsity boys soccer team to complete the record on Thursday. The game started off well, with no problems and no delays. This made things for the International boys all the better as they scored the first goal in the first two minutes. Griffin Javier Garcia was the one who put the ball in the net. The Knights immediately set themselves to even the game. Despite the constant attacks by the Knights, a determined Griffin defense and goalie were able to handle the attack. But before the Griffins knew it, they were being overwhelmed by the Knights. The only thing that saved the Griffins from giving up a goal to the Knights was Griffin goalie Santiago Maldonado. For a while there was no real progress from either team. Both teams continued to spar with each other, neither gaining any real control of the ball. This soon changed when forward Javier Garcia evaded the Knights’ defense and scored his second goal for the team, setting the score at 2-0 for the Griffins. A short while later, Griffin Jose Eduardo Coloma scored the third Griffin goal. To finish the first half, Griffin Gary Suarez scored a fourth goal against Knights, bringing the score to 4-0.

The second half soon started, and ten minutes into it, Griffin forward Maykol Villavicencio scored an outstanding fifth goal for the Griffins. The organization of the Knights was failing, so they quickly changed to a much more aggressive approach. After several near misses, the Griffins picked up their defense and forced the Knights out of their strike zone, bombarding the Knight goalie, Andres Hurtado, in the process. Displaying great skill, he prevented the Griffins from scoring any more goals. The second half ended with the Griffins standing victorious not only in this particular game, but for all the Thursday games played at SCIS.

First Half Explosion By Jaguars Leads to 5-0 Win
By Ximena Fagan, SCCS

            The Cooperative varsity boys soccer team once again demonstrated their skills on the field by beating the well-regarded Christian Learning Eagles on the Jaguar field Thursday. After a tough game the final score ended at 5-0.

On this humid and warm afternoon, the Jaguars pulled out all the stops in order to beat the Eagles. The pumped up team exploded for three goals in about two minutes in the middle of the first half, with two of them coming within 30 seconds of one another.

The first player to score a goal was Josue Abuawad, who headed a well-placed pass from Nicolas Aguirre into the goal. Esteban Sauto scored the second goal right after the ensuing kickoff with his left foot after receiving a pass from Lorenzo Monasterio and breaking into the open. 

The third goal was scored no more than a minute later by Nicolas Cronenbold, who popped the ball over Christian Learning goalie Wesley Ordoñez.

After this short lapse in defense, the Eagles resumed playing harder than before and the game once again became a balanced match.

The Jaguars did get one more goal before the first half ended as Josue Abuawad brought the ball up to the Eagles goal once again. At this point one of the Eagle defenders was tripped up making it a one-on-one contest with the goalie. This was the second goal for Abuawad and the last goal of the first half.

            In the second half the Eagles captured the ball for most of the time and kept it on the Jaguars side. Even though there was significantly less scoring this half, the game was still very exciting, thanks to the cheering from both the Jaguar and Christian Learning supporters. 

“V-I-C-T-O-R-Y! That’s the Jaguars battle cry!” chanted the Jaguar cheerleaders, and the Jaguar team was spurred on to score one more goal, making the score 5-0 before the referee blew the final whistle. Both teams appeared exhausted, but the Jaguars celebrated their third win in the season very proudly while Christian Learning’s record fell to 1-2. 

INSIDE THE GAME by Sebastian Vedia, Cooperative

 The key moment in last Thursday’s game was a dog that didn’t bark -- something that didn’t happen. It was the moment early in the first half, when the score was still 0-0, when the Eagles took a free kick that almost ended up in the goal, and would have if not for an outstanding effort by the Jaguar goalie.

      If it had gone in it would have energized the Eagles, who have the talent to be troublesome. Instead, without causing any real damage, it made the Jaguars realize that they could be losing this game if they didn’t step up their game. Before this the Jaguars were over-confident of their victory against the Eagles, causing them to play below their highest level. But after the free kick the Jaguars played with new determination. The defense tightened up. The midfield got into flow, completing many passes and moving the ball around. The forwards began to make good runs, get into open spaces, and ask for the ball.

     After the Jaguars went back to their normal style of play they scored three goals in less than five minutes. (Maybe much less; I didn’t check my watch.)  This killed the Eagles spirit. They were not as lively on the field and seemed to not care as much anymore. They wanted to sit back and defend a 3-0 loss, rather than try to come back into the Jaguars territory and take risks. The half ended quickly after the third goal, almost as if the referee was trying to stop the Jaguars from wreaking further mayhem upon the helpless Eagles.   

I was afraid that the Eagles would come out in the second half with a five-man defensive line with defensive-minded midfielders to shut us down, along with one forward trying to slip out into the Jaguar zone and give us a surprise. Instead they played their regular formation, which did not pose a problem for the reawakened Jaguars.  We got two more goals and the Eagles went home licking wounds from a 5-0 defeat.