Varsity Boys’ Soccer Ties Mavericks 1-1
West Bevins ’20 and Hilton Pineda ’18 watch fellow teammates before switching.
Philip Richardson ’20 and Eduardo Rodriguez ’19 frantically find a way to gain possession of the ball.
Eduardo Rodriguez ’19 runs the ball down the field past a McNeil player.
Hilton Pineda ’18 looks for the ball while Oliver Harris ’18 quickly runs towards the ball before a Maverick player.
Coach Duhon goes over the plays with the team before the start of the second half.
Skylar Cupit ’18 blocks an opposing player from getting the ball.
Cade Freehill ’18 waits for a signal by another warrior player before receiving a pass.
On the evening of Tuesday Feb. 6, the varsity boys’ soccer team went up against the McNeil Mavericks with hopes of gaining another district win early on in the season, ending the game with a tie of 1-1. While the outcome was not what the team had hoped for, the boys’ fought hard until the very end, with only minutes left in the game.
“Overall going into the game I thought we did very well like in the first half we went up by one and just overall we were very consistent,” Skylar Cupit ‘18 said.
With several head passes by Jack Elliot ‘19 and Cupit, followed by a much needed block by Avi Kacker ‘19, prevented the Mavericks from scoring a goal. Oliver Harris ‘18 then made his second goal of the season, bringing the Warriors ahead of the Mavericks by 1 point. As the first half came to a close, a final attempt to kick the ball into the goal by the Mavericks side was short-lived, as Justin Lang ‘20 successfully blocked their kick with just a minute left in the first half.
Going into the second half of the game, the Warriors showed resistance to the Mavericks offense, as Nikola Djordjevic ‘21 and Eduardo Rodriguez ‘19 both stole the ball from an opposing player, before attempting to make a goal for the Warriors. As another victory seemed clear for the Warriors, and only 2:52 left in the second half, a surprising kick by a Maverick’s player brought the score to a tie at 1-1, sealing the game with only a minute left before the end.
“Second half we started off well and just kind of jumped off a little bit by the end and went in the goal really late in the game,” Cupit said. “But overall I’m happy with the result just because we tied the Mavericks, that’s better than we’ve done in the past especially in the last games we’ve had by far.”
Catch the boys’ at the warrior bowl on Friday, Feb. 9 at 7:45 when they face off in their third district game against the Stony Point Tigers. Go Wood!
