Boys Socccer Off to a Rough Start

The Jacks started out their season exactly as expected by winning all their games.

Hockinson brought their “A” game, however, and kicked off a different streak for our guys.

The first civil war game delivered similar results.

Within the first 15 minutes, Miguel Linerez of MM trapped the ball to the ground and cracked a shot from just outside the 18-yard box. As the ball soared into the RAL net, the moral of the Jacks sank.

“We were all surprised,” said co-captain Ryan Ralston 12, “It seemed like MM’s goal killed the [Jack’s] energy.”

At about the 30 minute mark, the Monarchs put another one in against the then 5-1 Jacks.

The play started with a very questionable call by the referee which led to a free kick a few yards outside the 18-yard box. The ball then jostled around between players from both teams right outside the 6-yard box and stumbled out to MM’s Chris Melink where he lofted it into the back of the goal.

Even before the goal, tiredness and injuries plagued the Jacks. Many players shouldn’t have been in the game in the first place. Juan Contreras 11 had been suffering a knee injury, Louis Hernandez 11 had multiple pulled/strained muscles, and many of the other guys had a variety of aches and pains.

Those were only some of the problems the Jacks faced. They didn’t play the way everyone knows they can. Passes were often incomplete or misdirected, opponent players were going un-marked, and our boys just weren’t winning the 50-50 balls.

Later in the half, RAL pushed the ball into MM territory and caused some stress for the Monarchs. A shot from an RAL player bounced around in the goal for a quick exciting moment but then the MM keeper tipped it out.

During the second half, the injuries were getting worse and the exhaustion of the Jacks became more apparent. However, during the last bits of the game, our guys put it all aside and gave it everything they had.

“We really picked it up and had some chances on goal towards the end but it was a little too late,” said Ralston.

With about 10 minutes left in the match, RAL’s Joe Buckley 9 went in for a tackle in MM’s 18-yard box and came out with an acute concussion. The clock stopped for five minutes before play resumed.

Before the referee noticed the presence of an injured player on the field, RAL almost redeemed part of their deficit but the MM keeper tipped the ball just wide of the goal mouth where his defense promptly cleared it out.

“It was a bad game for us. We are going to take it to them next time, though,” said senior co-captain Austin Scroggins.

Throughout the game, two yellow cards were issued to MM players for excessive and blatant fouling.