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Preparing to kick the ball after a penalty, Nate Gunderson ’27 sends the Warriors down the field. The penalty kick gave the Warriors the position needed to score.
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Driving the ball down the field, forward Joshua Wu ’26 pushes the warrior offense towards the goal. The warriors fought a close game until the final minutes of the game until Vandegrift brought the score to 2-1.
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Recovering the ball, Lucas Casco ’27 attempts to push the ball toward Viper territory. In a close game, the Warriors held back the Viper offense for the majority or the game.
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Taking their home field in one of the toughest matches of the season, JV boys soccer matched up against the Vandegrift Vipers On Friday, Feb. 7. However, despite a tense game, the Warriors took home a 2-1 loss after an early tie.
The Vipers drew to a biting start, scoring a goal early into the first half to set the score 1-0 in the lead. Following Vandegrift’s goal, the Warriors tightened their defense and pushed their offense, taking the ball down the field several times. Eventually, with persistence and quick maneuvers around the defense, Riley Ang ‘27 scored a goal at the tail end of the first half to tie the game 1-1.
“I didn’t think it went in [at first]. [When I’m on offense] I just focus on scoring, trying to get people involved in the play,” Ang said.
Going into the second half, the Vipers tightened up their offense to match the Warriors, driving the ball towards the Warriors’ goal, but goalie Emmett Allen ‘28 kept the teams’ tie with several impressive saves.
“I [aimed] to keep the [opponent’s] score to a minimum and I don’t want to let my team down,” Allen said.
Following Allen’s save, the Warriors flipped the script, keeping the ball on Vandegrift’s side of the field and nearly scoring in three separate attempts. However due to the Vipers’ disruptions and overbearing defense, the Warriors couldn’t escape the tie.
“I think our team did really well in creating chances [to score], but we couldn’t finish them. It was a good performance, just a bit unlucky,” Allen said.
With just a minute left, the Vipers incurred a penalty kick to score their second point of the game, putting themselves in the lead. This quick point shut down any attempts at redemption from the Warriors, who shortly ended the game with a 2-1 loss.
“I feel like our team was overconfident. We were not taking a lot of practices and warm ups seriously, and it probably affected our game,” Ang said. “I feel like we’ll learn from this and we’ll definitely come back stronger.”
The team will play their penultimate game next Tuesday, Feb. 11, at Vista Ridge.
